Letter from John M. Shea to Matthew Connelly, with Attached Newspaper Clipping

SHEA&SHEA fu ATTORNEYS-AT-LAW 184 NORTH STREET PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS JOHN M. SHEA January 19, 1949. TELEPHONE JOHN F. SHEA PITTSFIELD 6962 COUNTY COMMISSIONER DALTON 345 286-A Hon. Matthew Connally, Executive Secretary, a S. RECOMS, White House, US SERVICE Washington, D. C. COVERNMENT x 144A S Dear Mr. Connally: x286 I enclose a clipping from today's paper which needs no comment. I write about. the so called medical bill. When I was a young man out of 1907 High School A could easily have entered medical school. A young friend of (1941) my acquaintance - a graduate of Holy Cross wounded in France - after a year in the hospital, went back to Holy Cross for a year's pre-medical training achieved excellent marks, applied for admission to Tuffts and Boston University Medical Schools - was turned down by both with two or three thousand others ( In all New England, each year, Harvard has, I am told, ymedical schools about 150 places for Freshman medical students Yale, Boston University and about Tuffts altogether can place 200. ) Compare that situation with Law in New England. I don't know all the Law Schools but there are probably eight or ten who will take in two or three thousand freshmen students each year. A Professor from Fordham told me this summer that President Eisenhower of Columbia told him that his greatest headache came from friends, influential friends and applicants from all over the world who wanted to register in Columbia's freshman medical class of 200. Recently on the Radio President Stassen of Pennsylvania stated he had two or three thousand applicants for 200 spots in Pennsylvania. Why did all the medical schools fold up a few years ago? Why was the enrollment in the leading medical schools cut down? Perhaps these men whose names I have mentioned will tell you. If they will not, if you