60 Hattie Plum Williams 
deaths under five years of age was 65.1, 68.2, and 84.7 of the total 
number respectively for the three years, or an average of 72.7 per 
cent.; while for the city at large it was 28.5, 30.1, and 30.0, or 
29.7 per cent.27_ The proportion of deaths over fifty years of age 
is much lower for the Russian Germans than for the city at large; 
while in the middle age groups, where mortality should be the 
lowest, the rate for the city at large is almost twice the proportions 
for the immigrants. 
These figures are significant only as one keeps in mind the age 
distribution of the two groups. Of the Russian German popula- 
tion, 21.9 per cent. are under five years of age, while only 9.9 per | 
cent. of the population of the city fall within that age group. On 
the other hand, the city has many more elderly people than has the 
Russian German and many of these deaths in the city are of 
persons over sixty years of age. The age distribution of the 
Russian Germans is such, then, as to warrant a greater expectancy 
of death than in the city at large, particularly in the lower age 
groups.** The real question and the one of social significance is 
whether or not any considerable number of these deaths are pre- 
ventable. 
The large proportion of deaths under one year of age among 
the Russian Germans argues, at first glance, for a high infant 
mortality rate; but such is not actually the case. The proportion 
of infant deaths (exclusive of still births) per 1,000 living births 
for the three years, 1912-1914, has been as follows :*° 
37 The infant and child mortality among the Slavs of the Pennsylvania 
coal fields was 70 per cent. of the total deaths, while the English-speaking 
children formed 40.7 per cent. of the entire mortality. Roberts, Anthra- 
cite Coal Communities, 79. 
38 Tf the figures were available it would be possible to compute the death 
rates for each age group and thus show exactly the comparison in health- 
fulness between the two populations. See Bailey, Modern Social Condi- 
tions, 216-220. 
39 The proportion of still births is also lower for the Russian Germans 
than for the city at large, being in 1914, 2.8 per 100 for the former and 3.4 
for the latter. The same fact was found to be true among the foreign 
women in Pennsylvania, where 17 to 20 per cent. of the still births were 
among Slay mothers, and 68 to 80 per cent. among English-speaking 
mothers. Roberts, Anthracite Coal Communities, 81. 
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