A Social Study of the Russian German 71 
enough to bear it. Aside from the definite results to be accom- 
plished through better sanitation and through the education of 
mothers, whatever tends to improve social conditions in the com- 
munity will make itself felt in lowering the number of deaths of 
infants and small children. Education, however, will not be 
properly effective until the Russian Germans are taught how un- 
necessary are the deaths of many of their children. They have 
been accustomed to great epidemics of children’s diseases which 
carry off, in some years, several hundred out of a single colony. 
No such event has ever happened in this country, and the gradual 
decrease of the child population as it occurs in Lincoln does not 
arouse them to any feeling of alarm. Only when they begin to 
feel that it is not entirely the “ divine will” that their children die, 
but that they have some control over the matter, will they do their 
fair share in eliminating the preventable waste of child life. 
To sum up the question of death rates among. the Russian 
Germans in Lincoln, we have seen that for these people as a 
whole they are about the same as for the city at large, or some- 
what lower. The largest percentage falls upon children under 
five years of age, but according to the number of births, the 
infant mortality is a trifle lower for the Russian German than 
for the whole city. Undoubtedly it might be quickly reduced by 
ascertaining the definite causes; but better sanitation by the mu- 
nicipal authorities and education through visiting nurses and 
through the school will tend to the same end, though more slowly. 
IV. Marriage 
It has been pointed out that under the favorable economic and 
social conditions prevailing in Lincoln, the crude birth rate of the 
Russian Germans is increased over that which exists in the Ger- 
man colonies in Russia, and that the death rate is decreased. The 
variance noted in these physical processes of birth and death is 
still more pronounced in relation to marriage, which responds 
with greater readiness to outward conditions. 
The exact degree of change in the marriage rate cannot be 
given, but only approximated. From April, 1913, to April, 1914, 
OT, : 
