CHARLESTON, W.Va.—It was a great pleasure Wednesday noon to see Mrs. Eugenie Anderson, who came here from Minnesota for a brief visit and who will also be in Washington, D.C., for the national convention of Americans for Democratic Action.

I gathered together for lunch a few people whom I hoped she had not seen recently, and all of them were delighted to have an opportunity to see her again.

The newspapers report Senator Walter F. George's decision to leave the Senate. He is the oldest member of that body in point of service and many will regret his retirement, particularly since this undoubtedly means that former Governor Herman Talmadge will represent Georgia in the Senate. And the feeling is that this will bring a change from a broad national interest in public affairs to a narrow, local point of view.

The President has appointed Senator George as his personal representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and, since the Senator, like Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, has always been a backer of a bipartisan point of view in foreign affairs, this is a fitting appointment and probably will serve to ease the transition from so many years of public life to the life of a private citizen.

Senator J. William Fulbright, in his speech in the Senate against the Administration's increase in the military part of its foreign aid program, probably was correct when he said the Administration was asking for more arms because "it is easy and traditional and because it (the Administration) hasn't any imagination."

The Administration always goes on the assumption that the nations to which we give military aid would, with this help, actually be able to resist an attack by the Soviet Union, while, as a matter of fact, there are very few nations which could resist such aggression with the amount of aid we give.

Even if, as we say, we might be finding new weapons with which to provide our beneficiaries, it is more than likely that the Soviet Union is finding these same weapons at the same time.

The Soviets keep insisting that they do not want war and we know that they have shown a tendency to use other weapons than military in their bid for the goodwill of the countries of Asia and Africa. That should spur us to more imagination.

Are we developing our economic aid and our cultural and spiritual leadership so that we will not be left behind on the non-military battlefield?

Pope Pius XII, in his interview with a group of international heart specialists, seemed to have suggested that the cure for heart attacks is not entirely in the realm of the physical but may also require the 20th century man "to seek inner peace."

That may be harder to achieve than even the severe physical regimen that many doctors might subscribe for their patients.

There is one encouraging piece of news in the realm of health, however, and that is that there have probably been 400,000 cancer cures in the U.S. This is due to early detection and prompt treatment of the disease.