NORMS AND TRENDS IN NET EARNINGS 141 
rule, the year 1919 is the only significant exception. That is, if 
a district’s net earnings are low (or high) in terms of earning 
assets, they tend also to be low (or high) in terms of gross 
earnings. Of the 84 district-positions, there is agreement in 81% 
and disagreement in 19% of the cases. 
But, as indicated, each district has its own level of net earnings 
in terms of gross. From year to year the ratios change. From 
the level of 1919, which it will be recalled was high, in terms 
of the seven-year average, for every district except Philadelphia, 
what was the direction of change to 1920? For all of the dis- 
tricts combined, and for nine of the twelve individually, it was 
upward. While the direction of change from 1920 to 1921 was 
downward for all districts combined, and for each of them except 
Boston and Philadelphia, the 1921 level was still above that 
for the seven years. For 1922, the average ratio for the com- 
bined districts remained the same as for 1921, the ratios in the 
East (except Boston), the Southeast, and Central districts rising, 
and those for the balance of the country falling. For subsequent 
pairs of years, the ratios tended to decrease between 1922 and 
1923 and between 1923 and 1924, and to rise between 1924 and 
19235, but there is little uniformity of direction among the several 
districts. Dissimilar as are the directions of change in certain of 
the years, there are marked uniformities from year to year in 
TABLE 00 
NUMBER OF DisTrRICTS WITH RATIOS OF NET EARNINGS To EARNING 
ASSETS AND OF NET EARNINGS TO GROSS EARNINGS INCREASING 
OR DECREASING FROM YEAR TO YEAR, 1919-1925 
YEARS 
1919-1920. . 
1920~192I.. 
1921~-1922..... 
1922-1923... ... 
1023-1924... . 
[1024—10Q2¢%.... 
INCREASING 
Net Earnings 
to Earning 
Accate 
Net Earnings 
to Gross 
Farnines 
DECREASING 
Net Earnings 
*o Earning 
Accpte 
Net Earnings 
to Gross 
Earnings 
10 
6 
7 
9 
4 
“One =k. 
§fTwo +.