THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8202, 4 August 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 1906.

The doctors disagree as to the causes of the deterioration, but they agree that there has been a very marked deterioration in the teeth of the raoe. It seems to be sd in all countries, and most countries are sotting themselves to oheok the evil tendency. The examination of 10,000 school children in England revealed only 14 per oent. of them to bpve sound teeth. Another examination of 39,000 children showed muoh better results, about 60 per cent, having good teech, but in another district, of 8,000 young people examined, 95 per cent, were found to have defective teeth. Italian statis tics show 92 per oent. of the children examined to have had detective teeth. Very comprehensive investigations have been conducted in Ger-

many. Of about 15,000 typical children examined 93 per cent, of those between six years and nine years, 96 per cent, of those at nine years and ten years, and 94 pe| cent, of those over ten years had diseased teetb. In Russia, which is a backward country in most respects, dentul investigations wore conducted as far back as 1879, with the result that 80 per cent, of the inhabitants of St. Petersburg were found to have defective or deoayed teeth. There is nu uniformity of practice in Russia in regard to the examination of children's teeth, but the importance of the matter is everywhere recognised. The military high schools and many other educational institutions have dental officers regularly appointed, and in 1896 the Russian dentists petitioned tbe Minister of the Interior to organise a department of dental hygiene throughout tbe Empire. The agitation has had at least the result of directing widespread attention to the necessity for preserving the teeth of the nation. Even a city like Batoum insists that the teeth of its sohool children should be periodically examined by experts.

Recent statistics published at Washington indicate that amidst all the industrial prosperity of America the lot of the mass of tbe working population is not improving. Though the skilled manual workers are earning high wages, they form a diminishing proportion of the population, and these high wages are qualified by a rise of prices in most artioles of food and other necessaries of life. So far ao the ruck ot the unskilled or common labour is concerned, the last few years indicate a oontinuuus weakening of resources, the high prices more than outweighing any rise of money wages. Food prices, fuel, and rent have risen enormously in most of the great cities, and discontent is everywhere rampant among] the people. A very dangerous state of the publio mind is arising, fed by a constant stream of revelations which are both sensational and true; trusts, railroads, insurance companies, municipal misgovernment, have been subjected to an incessant "lifting of the lid", and on the top of all this has come the packers scandal at Chicago. Mr Roosevelt has always kept in close touoh with tbe working people; and he doubtless understands that unless the Federal Government is i ready to take a boldj hand in the game these forces will develop into a dangerous revolutionary movement. This has often been said before, but, as in the days of Noah, the flood does actually arrive. Whether it can be stayed by the bead of a Republican party remains to be seen.