EXPENSES IN DISTRICTS I AND II 289 
course, part plus and part minus, but it is not necessary that, 
as in this case, the years in which the signs agree be substantially 
the same. In general, the years in which ratios of total expense 
to earning assets are low or high in banks in a given city or 
volume group are the same as those in which ratios are low 
or high in all city and volume groups. That is, any set of influ- 
ences tending to increase or to decrease the ratios permeates the 
banking structure of the entire district. 
This phenomenon is analogous to that already observed in the 
discussion of the deviations of yearly district ratios of total 
expense to earning assets from the levels fixed by the averages 
for the period 1919-1925. It was found that districts, relative to 
their own levels, tend to be high or low at the same time. It 
is now found that a similar condition obtains within a single 
district, when the four-year averages for the city and the volume 
groups constitute the standards from which the percentage devia- 
TABLE 164 
PERCENTAGE DEVIATIONS OF RATIOS OF ToTAL EXPENSE TO EARNING 
ASSETS FROM THE GROUP AVERAGES, 1922-1925, CLASSI- 
FIED MEMBER BANKS, BosToN FEDERAL 
RESERVE DistrICT, BY YEARS 
YEARS 
Crry-Groups 
(Population in 000's) 
Average = 
I — 
Undero............... 
ro and under 20....... 
20 and under 40....... 
40 and under 120....... 
120 and over 
VoLUME-GROUPS 
{Earning Assets 
tn 00.000’s) 
Averace 
Unders................ 
sand under ro........ 
ro and under 20........ 
20 and under so... ..... 
soandover..... ...... 
1022 
1Qg2% 
army 
~T O72 
~ 
ny n 
er 400 
1.11 
1.17 
+1.44 
+o0.44 
-—y - 
+3.49 
+0.47 
+1.44 
+o0.22 
40.23 
1 
EARS 
192§ 
+1.02 
-4.01 -2.12 +2.63 +3.08 
~4.85 =0.77 +1.79 +3.57 
~2.35% 40.24 +1.41 +1.65 
—2.04 —o0.23 +1.13 +1.13 
-0.68 +0.68 +£0.00 %=0.00