GROSS EARNINGS IN DISTRICT I 277
respect to a similar phenomenon for the district ratios for the
country as a whole for the years 1919-1925, and consider
together the cumulative evidence bearing on this point.
In Chapter V it was shown, first, that there was substantial
uniformity in the directions of change from year to year in the
district ratios of gross earnings to earning assets.? Similar con-
sistency between 1924 and 1925 is now found for member banks
in the Boston district classified by city-size and volume (earning
assets) groups.® Second, that district ratios which are high or
low in a given year tend to decrease or to increase, respectively,
in the following year.* It is now found that the same phenomenon
occurs between 1924 and 1925 for the separate member banks
in the Boston district.® Third, that the net rates of increase
or of decrease from year to year for district ratios vary directly
with the percentage amounts of dispersion from type—type
being the seven-year averages for the respective districts.® Simi-
lar tendencies are now discovered for the Boston member banks,
regression being measured with respect to averages of three types,
and irrespective of averages at all as standards of reference.”
These various kinds of corroboratory evidence lend support to
the contention, already made,® that the phenomena observed
are expressive of the results of the operation of forces deter-
mining rates of interest and of “other income”—the components
of a bank’s or of banks’ gross earnings. It is unnecessary to
repeat what has already been said on this point. With the
wording altered so as to apply to individual banks rather than
to groups of banks taken as one institution, it will serve to
describe what is going on within the Boston—indeed, in any—
district. It is believed that these forces are constantly operating
and that their results are measurable and repetitive.
3. SERIES CORRELATED WITH RATIOS OF GROSS EARNINGS TO
EARNING ASSETS
District ratios of gross earnings have been found to be func-
ions of operating conditions. Do similar relations for the indi-
2 See Table 52. 8 See Table 54.
$See Table 155. 7 See Tables 157, 158.
¢ See Table 53. ® See pages 75-77.
See Tables 157, 158.
