74. Hattie Plum Williams 
of young people are found in the settlements. Therefore, if the 
matriage rate were to be computed according to the number of 
single persons of marriageable age, the difference between the 
Russian Germans and the surrounding population would be much 
more marked.°* In spite of the lack of young persons among the 
foreigners, the almost universal tendency of the widowed to re- 
marry helps to raise the rate to its unusual height. 
The economic laws which affect the marriage rate in general in 
all countries scarcely operate within the Russian German settle- 
ments in Lincoln. It is a general principle that “the marriage 
rate falls in hard times and rises on the recurrence of pros- 
perity.”°° But in so far as it can be computed for this foreign 
group, it follows the curve of immigration more closely than it 
does the rise or fall in prosperity, and often quite contrary to it. 
Hence, the first or second year following each high tide of immi- 
gration has always shown an increase in the marriage rate beyond 
the proportionate increase in population. 
The years from 1892 to 1894 inclusive are the first and most 
striking example of this fact, Up to 1891, as has been previ- 
58 In a comparative study of marriage rates among the native and for- 
eign born in Massachusetts, a vast difference was found between the two, 
but this was much reduced by comparing the ages of the two populations. 
Thus, in the years 1887-1889, the marriage rate was as follows: 
Persons per 1.000 Rate Corrected for Age 
Population Distribution 
ING EIVIE SENET aay oN 16.6 15.5 
Horeignt bora ery Nepean i 30.9 26.9 
Enitire State, sae yy oe alee melt ZOOS 18.6 
The large number of adults and the small number of children among 
eastern immigrants apparently raises the rate to an enormous figure, which 
is much reduced by correcting the rate for age distribution. Cf. Kuczynski, 
“The Fecundity of the Native and Foreign Born Population in Massachu- 
setts,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, XVI, 1-36, 141-186. A similar 
correction for the Russian German population in Lincoln, however, would 
raise the marriage rate instead of lowering it, because the age distribution 
of the two foreign groups is the direct opposite. 
°9 For a summary of the principles governing the movement of the mar- 
riage rate, see Howard, General Soctology, an Analytical Reference Sylla- 
bus, 27; also Mayo-Smith, Statistics and Sociology, 93, 100-101 ; and Bailey, 
Modern Social Conditions, 142-144. 
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