A Social Study of the Russian German OI 
Taste XIJ. Number or DEATHS UNDER ONE YEAR PER 1,000 LivinG BirTHs 
FoR LINCOLN AS A WHOLE, FoR LINCOLN EXCLUSIVE OF THE RUSSIAN 
GERMANS, AND FOR THE RUSSIAN GERMANS, 1912-1914 
Lincoln (Total) Lincoln (Exclusive of Russian Germans 
Russian Germans) 
Mee Number |} Number} Infant | Number) Number | Infant | Number | Number | Infant 
Living Infant |Mortality} Living | Infant | Mortality) Living Infant | Mortality 
Births | Deaths Rate Births | Deaths Rate | Births | Deaths Rate 
IQOI2| 1,161 85 73.2 822 62 Sab | B30) 23 67.0 
1913 | 1,110 Ii2 100.9 752 fo 12T.0.| 358 20 81.0 
1914! 1,168 97 83.0 | 786 61 70 B82 36 94.2 
Average..... 85.7 91.3 | 80.7, 
The statistics will be found to differ greatly between the various 
groups, and also within each group; while the period covered is so 
limited and the figures are so small, comparatively, that it is diffi- 
cult to formulate any general rule. Especially is this hazardous 
because of the incompleteness of the records. One fact, how- 
ever, is clear and of vital importance: the infant mortality rate 
among the Russian Germans does not differ vitally from the same 
‘rate in the remainder of the city, and the Russian German infant 
has about the same chance to grow out of babyhood into child- 
hood as does the average child in the city. This fact is particu- 
larly significant locally because, for some years, the impression 
has prevailed in the community that there is an abnormally high 
infant and child mortality in the Russian German settlements as 
compared with the city at large. The statistics, however, do not 
bear out this supposition. 
It is true that the community is more conscious of the infant 
mortality among the immigrants because it is localized; e. g., in 
1914, 36 infant deaths out of a total of 97, or almost one third, 
occurred among the Russian Germans, and most of these were 
within the settlements.*° But practically one third of the total 
number of births occurred among the same people; and naturally, 
where the births are, there must be the infant mortality, also. 
However, it is undoubtedly true that the infant mortality rate 
40 In the discussion of vital statistics, the figures for the Russian .Ger- 
mans include the entire city, and not merely the residents of the two set- 
tlements as in the case of housing conditions previously discussed. 
187 
