62 Hattie Plum Williams 
of the entire city is larger than it should be, or than it need be if 
proper means were taken to reduce it. It is difficult to say just 
how far this could be done, or what would be a reasonable 
standard to set. The average rate in Lincoln of 85.7 for three 
years is certainly not high compared with the estimated rate of 
124.0 for the United States as a whole, or with some of the 
American cities as shown in the following list :* 
JOHNS wank anes Aen ee ei renee eunnn et 55,000 134 
IVa tile re Fas See Sagas ap ec hen en 44,000 90 
Spring firel deel yceow eats aos n Renee 51,000 130 
Wichita sa eanise iss. sniua sities) aun un ryote gl 52,000 102 
South Blend linclite teens Gay veers ele 53,000 182 
OinraltayiNely rey ate ete recny en eee 124,000 126 
Grandia piclssaaVii chi genes wanes ae nate 112,000 122 
Mos: wAn'eele'sii Gailsacon tn oriuertis Mey e eonra race 319,000 97 
Inidianapohiswlcadee sere serena Sane 233,000 123 
Kanisasii@ity ai Mioa mn iitsi nee hese ees annul 248,000 154 
Seattle Wrasliepvnters ve rieak a hierniana mice 237,000 82 
But conditions in these places may vary widely from each other 
and from circumstances in Lincoln. Here there are broad streets, 
spacious yards, few tenements, and only a small manufacturing 
population. Every outward encouragement for a low infant 
mortality exists, and no community is absolved which has any 
appreciable amount of preventable waste of human life. 
In New Zealand, a country whose history and conditions are 
not unlike some of our western states, remarkable progress has 
been made in reducing infant mortality from a rate which was 
comparatively low to begin with. In ten years (1902-1912) the 
infant mortality rate for the country as a whole was lowered from 
41 For statistics relating to cities of 100,000 population and over, see 
Bureau of the Census, Mortality Statistics, 1911. For the infant mor- 
tality rates of Johnstown and Malden see Duke, “Infant Mortality, Re- 
sults of a Field Study in Johnstown, Pa.,” Children’s Bureau, Infant 
Mortality Series, No. 3. For the data concerning the remaining cities, 
chosen on account of similarity in size and conditions to Lincoln, I am 
indebted to Miss Julia Lathrop, Chief of the Children’s Bureau. The 
figures represent the infant mortality rate for 1908-1912, for which period 
the rate for Lincoln was 99.8. 
188 
