Editorial opinion Going encamping Being a student leader is no pic nic Neither is being a faculty leader or a University administrator or a town official or a legislator. But during Fall Term Orientation week, representatives of all these groups will get together at Stone Valley for a sort of picnic: the 1974 Encampment, a relatively in formal two-day gathering at which key campus and town figures will discuss University problems. This year's participants cannot afford to treat the EnCampment as only a big, friendly picnic. In addi tion to playing, volleyball and splashing around the lake in canoes, they will be contributing James J. Kilpatrick Drug laws: ex Bono Son-,e of the greatest failures of _xtenlporary liberalism can be aSured in their reversal of Pollyanna's raxim Ex malo bonum out of evil, good Liberalism has , a way of standing , he maxim on its head: Ex bono malum. A new study: is at hand to buttress this lamentable Observation. The new study, by Professor Sam P-Ifziman of the Chicago Graduate of Business, deals with the unsequences that have stemmed from the 1962 amendments to our drug laws. He finds these ' , consequences, on tialance, bad Some of us who are riot professional economists long ago arrived at the same conclusion by hunch, intuition, and rough observation. Peitzman gets there by classic methods of economic analysis. Collegian DIANE M. NOTTLE Editor their ideas on what directions the University should take in the next year. Some participants in last year's Encampment criticized the program because they felt it ac complished little. This must not be allowed to happen again. And it is up to the invited guests to see that it does not. The pre-invitation letters contain an enclosure listing possible topics for: discussion suggested by the Encampment committee. In ad dition, guests are asked to sug gest their own topics and sub mit outlines for discussion That evil consequences flow from good intentions is scarcely a novel proposition. Such results often are observed. when government sets , out to tinker with the functions of the marketplace or with the workings of human behavior. Two recent examples come readily to mind: wage-price controls and racial-balance busing. To these might be added suph fiascos of liberalism as high-rise public housing. urban renewal, deficit spending, and certain measures taken in the name of reducing pollution. The 1962 amendments to the basic 1938 Drug Act were an outgroWth of the very best intentions. Congressional liberals, led by the late Senator .Estes Kefauver, were convinced that drug manufacturers were exploiting a gullible public. Riding the shock waves CYNTHIA A. ASHEAR Business Manager sessions they would like to lead When :your invitation arrives, read over the topic list carefully and indicate which topics you feel should haVe priority at the En campment. If you have strong in terest'or knowledge in a particular field, sign up to lead the discussion. The progress made at this Year's Encampment can benefit the University community only if its representatives put their best ef forts into the program. Now is the time to start planning for an ef fective Encampment by planning to participate. • produced by the thalidomide scandal, they wrote into law some sweeping new demands for the approval and marketing of drugs. Where the old law had demanded proof merely' of a drug's safety, the new law demanded proof of a drug's effectiveness as well. The senator from Tennessee assuredly did not want to harm the consumer; his purpose was to benefit the consumer. Who could quarrel with so goodly an Intention? Peltzman quarrels with it. In his methodical examination of the actual results of ti e 1962 1 amendments, the Chicago economist demonstrates convinciwly that these consequences have ensued: Innovation has been stifled. In the decade preceding the amendments, drug manufacturers introduced an average of 43 new chemical entities a year. The average since then is 16 new entities a year. Consumers have not gained. On the contrary, they are losing from $250 to $350 million annually in benefits they might have had if it had not been for the prolonged delays and abandoned ex periments of recent .years. That is the demonstrable economic loss. The human loss is incalculable. Human beings have died, or have suffered needlessly, for want of drugs that might have been available if the Kefauver amendments had never been adopted. Letters to the editor Gays and the Bible TO THE EDITOR: We live in a democracy in which rule is ultimately (hopefully) based on the wishes of the ruled. Ad one time in our history a significant majority of the citizens wanted to be ruled by what they construed as "Christian" principles in ,government. The ratio of such people has declined so dramatically during this century that writers such as Schaeffer ("Death in the City," 1969)• refer to this as the Post-;Christian Era. As a Christian, naturally I regret this; however, as a citizen of this democracy I have to agree to the right of the People to, govern themselves. To this extent I agree with your • editorial of Wednesday. I would like to make some comments on the Biblical exegesis which has sprung up as an aside to the issue of gay rights. First, you are to be complimented for your commeht in the editorial that the Bible teaches that all persons are sinners. However, you miss the mark when you imply that since all persons are sinners it really doesn't matter. There are many passages that agree with you that all persons are sinners. For example St. John writes: "If we say we are not sinners, we are fooling ourselves" (I John 1 :8) but he also says three verses later: "I write this to you ... so that you may avoid sinning. If You should sin, we have Jesus Christ who is sinless to plead our casd . before God." Sinning does matter, accordinf► to Scripture. iTICIIUM The principal result of the 1962 act has been delay. Because of the elaborate requirements of the Food and Drug Administration, manufacturers now are compelled to devote from four years to nearly nine years in accumulating ab solute proof of a drug's effectiveness. The FDA itself, which in 1962 processed a new drug application in seven months, now requires two and a half years for its own .review. Peltzman offers these bleak illustrations: A delay of two years in a drug that could reduce cancer deaths of 25 percent would result in the loss of 166,000 lives between 1970 and 1980. A similar delay as to heart disease could cause 383,000 deaths. If pre-1962 drugs for tuberculosis and severe mental disorders had been subjected to the same delays now demanded, thousands of patients would have died or endured needless hospitalization. Like._ most professors of economics (John Kenneth Galbraith' and Milton Friedman excepted), Peltzman writes with a.. - .laborious pen. His study, published this week by the American Enterprise Institute, is hard going. But this is rewarding scholarship all the same. It supports a thesis long ago laid down by such keen observers as Burke and De Tocqueville: . governeer4 is most to be feared when government'sets out to do good. University Mennonite Fellowship 112 Chambers Building 10:00 a.m.. Sunday ; c4ttr 326 E. College Across from Atherton Nall • : ~.ci Akirc i % ....- .................... c ii ... .4 ♦ o.** 0., omit Ss ' Ics * ••• ... 44 4 ‘ , ••• % # . .: vi •.: / lii , lt% %' 1 0 .• % , . 1174 i• ..• I v ' iii I olk fils i .6 > ? : : r mi. iiiJl HE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY • / 1 1,1 UASAIUNty .°0 0 By Mary Chase in the Pavilion ' July 23-27 Matinee July 27 Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter Book by Bell and Samuel Spewack In the Playhouse August 1-4, 6-10 Matinees August 3 and 10 JUEAVEU CFAS. SAILIILtsBAA‘f% By Arthur Miller In the Pavilion AugUst 2-4, 6-10 Matinees August 3 and 10 800 office open daily 10:00am - 6:oopm, Performance days 10:00 am too 9:00 pm; Telephone rosorratlons accepted 865-11384, Out of Town call , 1014)853-01n collect For further information and a brochure, write Festival Theatre, 137 Arts Building, University Park, Pa. 18802 Telephone reservations held Yr hour before curtain, then they go on general sale. Accuratoly dotallod! Tb• WNW& P.an flat• class ring In stock for immediato delivery Serving Penn Staters !!ne• 1927 IFISS tAIE lICATIE The anonymous letter pleading for gay rights the other week made some very confused references to the Bible and con cluded in effect that the Bible really did not teach against homosexuality. There are several very precise comments about homosexuality in both the Old and New Testaments. The thesis of the entire first chapter of the Epistle to the Rothans is that everyone is a sinner. Homosexuality (both males and females) is the point of verses 26 and 27. Also in the First Epistle to the Corinthians. St. Paul writes: "Don't be fooled, neither fornicators nor idolators .. nor malakoi nor ar senokoitai will inherit God's kingdom." (I Cor. 6:9) Both Greek words are masculine, nominative plural nouns. Malakoi literally means "softies." but specifically a male who plays a female role in homosexual intercourse. Arsenokoitai means "males who practice coitus with males." Homosexuality does matter. according to Scripture. The real issue is not what the Bible teaches, but whether or not individuals wish to submit themselves to Scriptural principles. This is a free choice, but one of significant con sequences, according to Scripture. May I respectfully suggest that if you wish to support the gay rights cause that you do so on the grounds of minority rights rather than on the grounds of distorted exegesis of Bible verses out of context. g Post House Tavern q - nacie/ftylx, 6giyietouz 146 N. Atherton Street State College wimmanommEmorilimm , L) e- 02 1 keel Jel-tc4-`ol*- S Corn cet...otzes- • ni • • %nut % Oak • ~~;o 2 incLel