NEW YORK, Tuesday—Everyone must feel that the final signing of the Saar Pact and the agreement that Germany shall again be a sovereign state and part of the defense community of the free countries of the West is an historic moment. It marks a strengthening of the position of the free nations. There is every hope for ratification and if, through the Saar agreement, Germany and France become more closely linked in economic ways the prospects for a peaceful and prosperous Europe will be advanced.

Russia is calling for a four-power meeting to consider the unification of Germany and the peace of the whole of Europe, as she puts it. It would, indeed, be remarkably encouraging if the Soviets could prove that they intend to give freedom to their satellites and to interest themselves in the peaceful economic development of the whole of Europe. Then, distrust of Russia's aims might lessen, but there will have to be some demonstration that these are the Soviet's real intentions before the rest of Europe or the world can put much faith in words alone.

We can congratulate Mr. Dulles and the Administration on the outcome of these European meetings. They certainly have furthered the cause of the free nations.

The United Nations' ninth anniversary was celebrated on Sunday in the General Assembly Hall where the stage held the symphony orchestra led by Dr. Munch and the Schola Cantorum led by Mr. Hugh Ross. The music was lovely, the speeches were short and the hour's celebration seemed to me very fitting for the occasion.

Celebrating anniversaries has little value unless, between those anniversaries, we strengthen the potential power for good of the U.N. We should be rededicating ourselves as a people to the support of the U.N. through our own government and we hope that all the other nations will do the same so that the year to come will be one of great advances in the field of human understanding and cooperation.

And now let us turn from international to state affairs.

Our two big metropolitan newspapers, the Herald Tribune and the New York Times, came out on Monday with editorials strongly advocating the Republican candidate for governor. One wonders if this is not an encouraging sign for the Democrats since it has frequently been true in modern elections that the winning candidate, if he happened to be a Democrat, received no support before election from any of the major newspapers.

Governor Dewey came into power with a large surplus in the state treasury left by a Democratic governor. Should his party be defeated in November there would be no such surplus for a Democratic governor to use, and many basic things have been neglected. For example, we have had a great increase in mental illness cases in our state hospitals with practically no investment in research and training of doctors for the care of the mentally ill. This is not economy. This could lead, eventually, to bankruptcy.

One can only hope that if the Democrats are elected, there will be a more realistic facing of basic problems and less thought of what will be beneficial only in the immediate present.