.MTY.NDE

As for post war employment ideas — I'm concentrating all though on what I'm going to do with myself. The Murray Dingell Bill — providing, in effect, for the socialization of medicine in the country — is now before congress and is very likely to pass. That makes it more imperative than ever that I take up a specialty if I hope to make any progress in medicine. Therefore, I'll have to take about three years of advanced training — postgraduate school and residencies — when I get back.

I have now finished four months of service overseas — and, according to latest regulations — I have fourteen months more to go before I can get back to the states. The european war may very well be over this year — but the final duration plus six months is a long time off. I'll be very lucky to get back to work by Sept., 1945, to begin any contemplated advanced training. Three years after that I'll be thirty-two. That's a little late to be starting out in life to earn a living — and in the end it will not have been worth the trouble — but I don't see any other way out. Circumstances beyond my hand's reach are forcing the situation. Fortunately, I'll have the money to continue the studies — and there's an outside chance that the government, after the war — will give about fifty-dollars a month to anyone wanting to take a year of higher education of any sort. It sounds like a grovelling dependency on pittances — but history is getting very complicated these days — and a man is no longer very much master of his fate. However, I'm still healthy — and I can still get excited about the life process — so maybe there's hope.

more soon
Mervyn