Y
INTRODUCTION
THE following chapters of Part II have to do with an analysis,
by Federal Reserve districts, of individual series of banking data.
The dollar amounts, taken from various reports of the Federal
Reserve Board for the years 1919 to 1923, are expressed in terms
of suitable bases, in this way making them comparable by years
and by districts. The ratios thus obtained are used, first, to
measure the nature and the percentage amounts of variability,
year by year, for each district from its own seven-year average;
second, to determine the type and percentage amounts of change
from year to year; third, to study the relations between year-to-
year changes and deviations from type; and fourth, to determine
the nature and percentage amounts of variation of the several
districts’ ratios from those for the twelve districts combined.
The years covered are those for which data for all of the se-
lected series were available. Inasmuch as the fiscal year used by
member banks in their reports to the Comptroller of the Currency
and to the Federal Reserve Board ends on June 30, it was neces-
sary to define the years in keeping with this fact. In the cases of
gross and net earnings and of expenses each year, the dollar
amounts are the totals for the year ending June 30. The amounts
of earning assets and of deposits—both totals and parts—are av-
erages of the figures reported as of December 31 of the preceding
year and of June 30 of the year in question. For these two dates,
data were available for the years 1919-1925.
A word of explanation is in point with respect to the use of
earning assets as a base for the ratios in the various series. What
was wanted were amounts best illustrative of the volume of busi-
ness transacted, and this appeared to be the total earning assets—
the income-producing portion of capital, surplus, and deposits.
This base, however, is not used exclusively, others being selected
whenever there appeared to be a logical relation between the
numerator and the denominator, and when the amounts expressed
