NORMS AND TRENDS IN EXPENSES 
CHART 17 
8: 
D1sTRIBUTION OF YEARLY District RATIOS OF TotrarL EXPENSE TO 
EARNING Assets, ALL MEMBER BANKS, 1019-19238 
Por Cent 
Percentage 
Groups 
3.25 and under 3.75 
3.75 and under 4.25 
4.25 and under 4.75 
4.75 and under 5.25 
5.25 and under 5.75 
5.75 and under 6.25 
5.25 and under 6.75 
. 
= 
Cc 
\ 
Fis 
= 
Ny 
10 
15 
20 
TE —— 
SOME A 53 yon Sm Re abr 
nT A = ov si J 
Number 
25 30 uot 
) » Cases 
2 
i6 
24 
17 
14 
) 
about a center. Further analysis is required if the norms and 
trends of this body of data are to be determined. 
If the average ratio for the period 1919 to 1925 in each district 
is taken as a base from which to measure the percentage amounts 
by which the yearly ratios in the districts differ from this level, 
it is found that (1) in all of the districts the years 1919 and 1920 
are low; that is, the ratios are smaller for these years than they 
are for the seven-year period; (2) in all districts in 1921 and 
1922, and in all but two districts in 1924, the ratios are high rela- 
tive to this level; and (3) in 1923 and 1923, part of them are high 
and part of them are low. That is, for five of the seven years, the 
influences which help to determine the ratios of operating expense 
to earning assets have the effect generally of making a given year 
high or low in all districts, notwithstanding the fact that the levels 
for the districts differ. The percentage amounts by which the 
district ratios are above or below their own seven-year level, of 
course, vary. Such variation is to be expected because of the 
differences in the levels themselves, as shown in Table 56. It is 
the fact of their being high or low at the same time which is now 
of interest. From this point of view, Table 57 is important. 
But in the search for norms and trends in expense ratios, other 
types of analysis are required. Keeping in mind the fact that 
while the ratios in the several districts have different seven-year