BANKING STANDARDS 
Series and years: Gross earnings, 1924-192 5; total expense, 1922- 
1925; net earnings, 1924-1925; 
3. For the Second (New York) District: 
Banks: a sample of 280 member banks, individually 
Series and years: Total expense, 1923-1923. 
The various series of data were taken from the reports of the 
Federal Reserve Board, the Comptroller of the Currency, and 
from the files of the Federal Reserve banks of Boston and of New 
York, the latter sources being made available through the cour- 
tesy of the officers of these institutions. It will be noticed that the 
data for the country as a whole refer to Federal Reserve districts 
as units and cover the years 1919 to 1925, inclusive. The plan of 
analysis, briefly described in the next following section and fully 
set out at various places in the text treatment, required series 
running over a number of years. Comparable data, being avail- 
able beginning with 1919, were assembled by years through 1925 
—the last year, at the time the compilations were made, for which 
the required figures, in all of the series, had been published. It 
was realized, of course, that banking conditions from 1919 to 1921 
were somewhat abnormal, but to have selected only the subse- 
quent years would have so shortened the period as to have made 
the analysis of doubtful value. Moreover, the fact that the years 
1919-1921 were unique argued strongly for their inclusion. The 
purpose of the study was to disclose norms, tendencies, and cor- 
relations, and if these obtain both in “abnormal” and in “normal” 
years, the evidence of system in banking affairs is strengthened. 
Indeed, it is far from certain that the criteria required to label 
periods as “normal” are at hand. 
The data for individual banks in the First and Second districts 
cover only those years which, at the time they were requested, 
were readily available. After all, if economic order of the type 
supposed characterizes the operations of our banking system, the 
matter of the years selected is relatively unimportant, provided 
the time studied is long enough for it to be disclosed. 
The data, with minor exceptions, are ratios, each series being 
expressed in terms of a suitable base, and the amounts used as 
percentages. By adopting such units, series are made comparable, 
changes and differences in absolute amounts, due to differences in 
the size of districts and shifting membership in the System, being 
allowed for in this manner. The ratios are given in the text tables