NORMS AND TRENDS IN GROSS EARNINGS 79 
seven years, New York for six, and Richmond and Chicago 
for five of the seven years. Of the districts which are high, 
relative to the seven-year average, Cleveland holds this position 
three years, and all of the other districts the full period of seven 
years. 
But “high” and “low” are relative terms; the districts which 
are “high,” as well as those which are “low,” are not equally high 
or low for each of the seven years. This fact is graphically illus- 
trated in Chart 16. 
This chart serves several purposes. It indicates for ratios of 
gross earnings to earning assets for each of the districts (1) the 
direction and percentage amounts of change from year to year and 
over the whole period, (2) the position held by each district rela- 
tive to that for the country as a whole, and (3) the nature and 
percentage amounts by which the ratios each year deviate from 
the seven-year level. Several features of the chart claim one’s 
interest. First, there is substantial agreement, among the twelve 
districts, that gross earnings ratios increased between 1919 and 
1921 and fell between 1921 and 1925, the ratios in 1925 for the 
combined and for the majority of the districts being approxi- 
mately the same as those in 1920. Second, the rates of change 
from year to year and over the whole period in the several dis- 
tricts generally conformed to those for the districts combined. To 
this generalization there are exceptions, the chief of which, for 
the year-to-year changes, are Minneapolis and Richmond, the for- 
mer experiencing a fall between 1919 and 1920, and the latter, 
between 1920 and 1921. Moreover, the downward trend from 
1921 to 1925 was not felt in the Fourth district (Cleveland) and 
only moderately so in Richmond, both, however, except for 1921, 
having actual ratios not markedly different from those for the 
combined districts. The districts with gross earnings ratios chang- 
ing most nearly in accord with those for the country as a whole 
are Chicago, St. Louis, and Dallas; those behaving most diverg- 
ently are Richmond and San Francisco. Third, the ratios in 
Dallas each year are relatively the highest; those in Boston gen- 
erally the lowest. As a rule, gross earnings (interest rates for the 
most part) are consistently high in the South and Middle West 
(Atlanta, Minneapolis, Kansas City, and Dallas); they are con- 
sistently low in New England and the East (Boston, New York, 
and Philadelphia). Fourth, while each district has its own gross