Republican farmer., 1920-05-28
RATE NEARLY 14 PER 1000
Dr. Coon Says Wrong actor of Population
 Used.

Bridgeport had in 1919 a death rate of close to 14 per thousand, which is normal and shows a good healthy city.
 The annual report of the Board of Health gave the death rate as 419, which, taking into consideration the general health the country, as shown by the reports from the regis tration districts, was abnor- mally low.
 Health Officer W. H. Coon explains that the error occurred by using the wrong factor of population. The pop ulation was taken as 165, GOO instead of 900, the official census figure.
 Dr. Coon's interesting statement fol- lows:
 .tI am request ed by The Times for a statem ent on the death rate of Bridge- port in 1919 as given in the annual re- port Of the board for that year. If tn ere is an error in the stated rate il g per 1000 population, this error is, of course due not in the factor of the actual number of deaths but the rela- tions of these deaths to the city's pop uIa.tion.
 'In 1919 the population of Bridge port was given as 165.s60. This esti- mate was based upon the actual emu meration of school children in Octo- Der, 1919, by the Board of Education
 It was found that there were in the schools of the city 33,172 pupils. It is apparently the custom of our edu- cationa1 authorities. and of similar authorities elsewhere, to estimate the population as of a given date by null tip1ying the number of school children
 present in the schools on that date by the factor "5" In actual practice his procedure has given an estimated population closely approximating that secured from an actual enumeration of inhabitants
 "It is possible that the discrepancy between the estimated population so obtained and the population arrived at through the census enumeration of | the United States government may be l due to two causes: In the first place, it is quite possible that with the ces- sation of War Activities in Bridgeport a considerable number of unmarried males and females sought work else where. This of course would disturb the usual ratio of "1'' to ''5" in the school census. It is also possible that 1 the governments enumeration may have fallen short of the actual num- i Der of persons in this city.
 The Health Officer of the city in es- l timating his rates is obliged to rely or procedures which have stood the tes.
 of experience. Among these proceed 1 se- ! must, of course, in our estimates fol this year accept the figures given us by the Census Bureau, it may we'll be asked, what figures we shall dur ing the coming year. It has beer stated that the General Electric Conn pany wishes to bring into Bridgeport a number of employees, variously esti- mated at from eight to ten thousand | If 5000 employees, for instance, are
 brought by this company into the city there should under any reasonable average be an increase in the city's population of 24,O0O persons; but if fol
 next year the Health Officer in his es l timateeS again uses the figures of the Census Bureau and these persons art l present in the city he will, in any O. his estimates, underestimate his rat
 '"The report for 1919 was written b, my predecessor, Dr. Waiter H. Brown
 who was obliged, in estimating hi
 rates, to use the only figures obtain able. I trust that I have been able tt
 point out to you the difficulty in oib taining correct rates. and I sincerel. l trust not for benefit of the Depart ment of Health but for the people O Bridgeport that the death rate givel for the year 1919 may not vary so ia, from fact as appears.
 ". H. COOc