278 
BANKING STANDARDS 
vidual member banks obtain within the several districts? No 
answer can be given to this question for districts other than 
Boston, and for it only in certain respects. But limited as are 
the data which are suitable for functional analyses of the types 
sresented in Part III, they indicate that what is true for the 
several districts for the years 1919-1925, as respects the rela- 
tions of gross earnings to total expense and to net earnings—all 
series being expressed in terms of earning assets—is also true 
for the individual banks in the Boston district for the years 
1924 and 1925. 
Let us review briefly our findings in these respects for the 
district ratios. For the years 1919-1925, it was found that (1) 
districts which had high or low gross earnings ratios had high 
or low ratios, respectively, of total expense and of net earnings; 
(2) the higher or lower the gross earnings ratios the higher or 
lower, respectively, the ratios of total expense and of net earn- 
ings, the standards of reference which determine the positions 
of the district ratios being their respective seven-year averages; 
and (3) increasing gross earnings ratios are accompanied by 
increasing, and decreasing gross earnings ratios by decreasing 
ratios of total expense and of net earnings. These conditions 
obtain for all districts and for the Boston district, separately, 
for the years 1919-1925, and for all districts for changes between 
1924 and 1925. The foregoing comparisons, it should be remem- 
bered, relate to district ratios and summarize prevailing ten- 
dencies. Are they essentially duplicated by the individual member 
banks in the First district? To answer this question calls for 
detailed analysis. 
For the years 1924 and 1925 there are 410 member banks in 
the Boston district for each of which ratios of gross earnings, 
of total expense, and of net earnings® to earning assets are avail- 
able. The respective types of ratios differ from bank to bank 
and from year to year. We have already noted the extent of 
the variations in the gross earnings ratios, and shall later pre- 
sent those for the other series. Moreover, the ratios vary accord- 
ing to the size of the cities in which the banks are located and 
the volume of the banks’ earning assets. The problem by 
which we are confronted, therefore, in determining the relations 
9 408 showing positive net earnings in both years.