A Social Study of the Russian German 27 
factors. Although figures cannot adequately represent the former, 
because it depends upon so many different elements, it is worth 
while to see what they show and then to supplement that informa- 
tion with specific examples. The lack of a proper standard of 
comparison such as would be furnished by a corresponding study 
of the native laboring element of Lincoln reduces the value of 
the following statistics, which can be compared only with totals 
for the city at large. 
Overcrowding varies greatly in different parts of the two 
settlements, some streets being no more thickly populated than 
the average residence portion of the city while other blocks have 
more than twice the normal number of inhabitants. .The density 
of population also varies with the seasons and with the waves 
of immigration. During the winter when the people are in from 
the beetfields, conditions are much aggravated; as they are also 
when new immigrants come who are sheltered temporarily with 
relatives or who occupy summer kitchens or rooms in other houses 
until they can afford to rent a separate establishment. In 1914, 
when the census of the Russian Germans was taken, there were 
many of the latter class in the settlements, so that overcrowding 
was greater than usual. Every possible nook and cranny was 
packed with people, as is evidenced by the fact that several fami- 
lies of newcomers had to rent places just beyond the border of the 
settlement. Overcrowding varies with the length of residence in 
America, being almost always confined to the raw immigrants. A 
family of eight who came to Lincoln in 1907 and occupied a two- 
room house the first three years of their residence there, now live 
in an eight-room dwelling but complain of “being too crowded.” 
The number of persons per dwelling in the Russian German 
settlements in 1914 was 6.0 as compared with 4.6 for the city 
at large. Since the latter figure counts hotels, boarding houses, 
and apartments each as one dwelling, it would reduce the propor- 
tion for the residence section of Lincoln, and intensify the com- 
parison between it and the foreign settlements. Whether the 
persons are largely adults or children, how many families they 
represent, and the size of the dwellings they occupy are vital 
21 Tlurtecnth Census of the United States, 1910, Abstract, 262. 
153 
