(ClaU ME TORS JE 
BirtH AND DEATH, MARRIAGE AND DIvoRCE 
I. Vital Statistics in Nebraska 
Vital statistics are in such a chaotic condition in the majority 
of the United States that there is no adequate or reliable basis for 
a study of the phenomena they present. The following results 
obtained from the records available must be accepted as approxi- 
mate and not final, and the excuse for presenting them at all is 
that they are the only ones which exist, that they are fairly 
approximate, as any one knows who is familiar with conditions 
in the foreign settlements in Lincoln, and that they may form a 
basis for comparison when more accurate work is made available 
by the state. It is unfortunate that there is no means of checking 
the results here tabulated; for the Russian Germans are never 
separated from the other groups and unless one is familiar with 
the family names of these immigrants he cannot sort out the data 
relating to them.? 
Nebraska’s tardy recognition of the value of vital statistics 
and the spasmodic and imperfect enforcement of the laws relating 
to it are typical of the American attitude toward this subject. 
There is some comfort, but no help, in the fact that our back- 
wardness in this regard has been due to two factors, the absence 
of which none of us regret; viz., a state church and compulsory 
military service. Our system of representation gave us the 
federal decennial census, the original purpose of which was purely 
political. As the social horizon has broadened, the social value of 
the census has become. more and more pronounced; and an 
increasing demand has come for a continuous registration, by the 
1 The writer’s interest in laying a foundation for future historical work 
for this people has led to her copying in almost all instances the data upon 
which the figures herein contained are based. 
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