V2 Hattie Plum Williams 
there were seventy marriages among the Russian Germans in 
Lincoln, giving a rate of 10.7 marriages or 21.4 persons married 
per 1,000 population. In 1910, there were fifty-four marriages, 
a rate of 10.8 marriages or 21.6 persons per 1,000.°° ‘These two 
rates, while corresponding almost exactly, are the results of 
entirely different local circumstances. The number of marriages 
in the first instance was the highest ever reached among the 
Russian Germans in Lincoln; while in 1910, the number was at 
the lowest ebb in a nine years’ period. Representing, therefore, 
two entirely different sets of circumstances which yet produce 
practically the same result, these figures may be taken as the 
average marriage rate among Russian Germans in the city. 
In the Protestant German colonies on the Volga, the marriage 
rate during a six-year period ranged from 10.6 persons to 15.0 
persons per 1,000 of the population. The approximate rates for 
the various years were as follows :°° 
TO OO eine ayes eeneteley Ueiee eae ye 15.0 persons per 1,000 population 
LOOP Sen ee eee Ree 13.2 persons per 1,000 population 
TO OSM Serine NCR REIT 13.3 persons per 1,000 population 
TOL2 yan Bice eee 10.6 persons per 1,000 population 
It will be noted that there is less difference between the highest 
and lowest rate in the colonies than there is between the former 
and the average rate in Lincoln; and also that the average rate 
in the city is more than twice the lowest rate in the colonies. 
Thus, the marriage rate of the Russian Germans rises greatly 
under the favorable living conditions in Lincoln. 
Before discussing the specific causes for this change, it will be 
profitable to compare this marriage rate with those prevailing in 
some other countries, and in certain parts of, or groups of popula- 
tion in, the United States.®” 
55 Record of Marriage Licenses in Lancaster County, Nebraska. 
56 Compiled from the Friedensboten Kalender, ¥908, 1900, 1910, 1914. 
57 The statistics for the European States, except Russia, and for New 
England are taken from Bailey, Modern Social Conditions, 137. For 
Nebraska and Lancaster County, see Nebraska State Board of Health, 
Bulletins, 1912-1915. Cf. Roberts, Anthracite Coal Communities, 60, for 
198 
