Hartford Courant du lieu suivant : Hartford, Connecticut • 151

READ AND WRITE As last of month (October) the Government Printing Office sold 300 sets of the highlypublicized Pentagon Papers, 12 volumes a set, at $50 for all 12 volumes. The Government printed hastily, and not very well, 500 sets to begin with. These are available from the U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.

Bantam Books has printed 1,500,000 copies of New York Times" version of the Pentagon Papers and will probably sell out at $2.25 a copy by year's end. Perhaps the best version of the now celebrated Papers has been published by Beacon Press, a nonprofit organization owned by the Unitarian Church. Beacon's version, which includes 100 documents from the Johnson Administration, comes in two editions: paperback--4 volumes at $20 a set, and hardback--4 volumes at $45 a set. Beacon's first print order consisted of 20,000 sets. To date, the Pentagon Papers in one form or another have had worldwide distribution.

And the Union still stands. MORE OLD-TIMERS America is rapidly becoming a nation of sexagenarians. And just in case you don't know, a sexagenarian is a person in his sixties. According to Dr. James Birren, director of the University of Southern California Gerontology Center, there are currently close to 29 million Americans aged 60 or over, which is more than the entire population of Canada or Scandinavia.

In a paper to be presented next month at the White House Conference on Aging, Dr. Birren will suggest a national commitment to meet the growing needs of old people. He will point out that while this country projects a youth-oriented culture, the truth is that insofar as the older population is concerned, "we are becoming an old nation and meaningful roles must be found for older people." TYPICAL OF THE JAPANESE-AMERICANS WHO ARE WIFE, WHO DEFEATED 14 CANDIDATES LAST MAY MOST The successful most SUCCESSFUL group minority in the U.S. consists of JapaneseAmericans. They number only 600,000, or less than 0.3 percent of the U.S.

population, but a good 15 percent of them hold professional level jobs. This compares favorably with the white population and far outstrips any other non-white minority. Not that Japanese-Americans haven't suffered racial prejudice and discrimination. During World War II they were uprooted from their homes and jobs, unfairly interned in camps DRUG SECRETS Last cember De- the Government discontinued the purchase of 25 popular prescription drugs, including Aureomycin, Terramycin and Darvon, for export to developing nations. Reason: the 25 brand-name drugs on the list are more expensive yet work no better than cheaper medicines.

Brand-name pharmaceutical manufacturers dispute this, of course, arguing that their products contain special ingredients, that there are no identical drugs with identical action, that it's safer to prescribe by brand names because doctors know ex- PROMINENT IS NORMAN MINETA, WITH HIS TO BECOME MAYOR OF SAN JOSE, CALIF. as a collective threat to American security. According to UCLA Professor Harry L. Kitano, an expert on Japanese-Americans, the wartime internment may have given them a greater incentive to succeed. Instead of nourishing their grievances, Dr.

Kitano believes, they reacted by seeking to become even more Americanized. The traditional Japanese values of duty and perseverance, Dr. Kitano points out, as well as respect for authority and belief in education, are also important ingredients of the Japanese-American success story. actly what effect the drug will have. The FDA, however, requires drugs to meet uniform standards for identity, strength and purity.

And in 1968, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare concluded after a 14-month study that "except in rare instances, drugs which are chemically equivalent and which meet all official standards, can be expected to produce essentially the same result." U.S. Surgeon General Jesse L. Steinfeld announced last year that Federal health facilities would curb the use of expensive -name drugs in favor of "good drugs at reasonable prices." Many private doctors prescribe brand-X drugs by brand name, whether out of conviction, convenience, or mere pressure of advertising, no one knows. There is a growing trend, however, to the "generics," or exact chemical equivalents of -name drugs.One recent publication will help doctors and their patients make an informed and economical choice of prescription drugs: The "Physicians' Guide to Prescription Prices," published by Wilcom Ltd. in Fayetteville, N.Y., contains pricing information on 7000 drugs which are also grouped according to active ingredients so that you may see what choices are available.

For example, under meprobamate, a common tranquilizer, the "Physicians' Guide" lists 12 different -name drugs ranging in price from 13-17 cents a tablet. The generic drug costs only 10 cents a tablet--a savings of as much as $6.30 per. month for a patient who needs three tablets a day. Prices in the "Physicians' Guide" are based on an average of 500 drug stores surveyed. Be forewarned, however, that even within the same neighborhood drug prices may vary considerably.

Mexico City, LOW PRICES with a population of 3.4 million, lists only 101 motion picture theaters, a small number to service that many people. Major reason for lack of movie houses is that for the last 28 years the Mexican Government has limited the admission price to 32 cents per ticket. Film distributors have tried endlessly to get that token price raised but have failed except in the case of a few new or remodeled theaters which are now permitted to charge as much as 96 cents per ticket. The Mexican Government claims that Mexico is still a "developing country," and that admission prices must be kept low SO that the poor classes can afford screen entertainment..