58 Hattie Plum Williams 
III. Death Rates 
We have seen that one third of the total births of the city are 
of Russian German parentage, although that people constitute but 
one seventh of the population; that the proportion in the city is 
gradually increasing; and that the birth rate is abnormally high 
due to the age distribution of the immigrants and to favorable 
economic conditions. As usual a high infant mortality accom- 
panies the high birth rate, and presents a much more vital problem 
to the city because it is one over which society has some direct 
control. 
So far as the crude death rate among the Russian Germans in 
Lincoln is concerned it is commendably low, being 11.0 deaths 
per 1,000 of their population in 1914 or, exclusive of still births, 
9.5 per 1,000. In 1911, the lowest death rates in the registration 
states of the United States were 10.5 in Minnesota and &.9 in 
Washington.** Unfortunately there is no way of accurately find- 
ing the death rate of Lincoln in 1914; but estimating the popula- 
tion at 45,000, the death rate would be 12.1 per 1,000.°* The city 
has long claimed a low mortality based partly on incomplete re- 
turns, although there is every condition locally, such as age dis- 
tribution, occupation, density of population, climate, and physical 
and social conditions, to encourage a low rate. 
As compared with the rest of the city, the death rate of the 
Russian Germans varies little from the proportion which they 
constitute of the whole population. They comprise from 12 to 
14 per cent. of the total inhabitants of the city, and in 1912, 14.3 
per cent. of the total number of deaths were Russian German; in 
1O13,12-2 per cent: and in 1914,/12'2 per cent.<> Wile theyzde 
33 Bureau of the Census, Mortality Statistics, 1911, 12. The death rate 
for Russia,, 1901-1905, was 30.9 per 1,000. Idem, 13. In 1912 the death 
rate for the Volga Protestant colonies was approximately I9 per 1,000. 
See Friedensboten Kalender, 1914. 
34 The crude death rate for the registration area of the United States 
in IQII was 14.2 (exclusive of still births). Bureau of the Census, Mor- 
tality Statistics, TOIT, 9. 
35 The effect of the foreign population of a city upon the mortality 
tates is frequently to raise them; for instance, in Boston the death rate 
in 1900 was raised 3.14 per 1,000 as the net effect of its foreign population. 
184 
