February 6, 1934.
My dear Clarence:
I read your letter very carefully and have spoken some to Dr. Burch. I am inclined to think that you would do best to take your internship somewhere in the east. Internships at Johns Hopkins and hospitals that have been patterned after it are likely to be indefinite affairs unless one continues to residency. Of course, I think this would be an ideal training and would be well worth the time you would put in. If the short internship at Johns Hopkins is not what you would desire the next best bet would be Boston and New York. As long as you have gone east for eastern notions and an eastern training I think your eastern internship would be quilted important. But as to St. Paul as a place to start, I cannot conceive of a more difficult one. It is just a question as to how much your friends would do for you. One thing that is almost certain if you are going to start in practice in St. Paul you would have to be equipped to do some general practice and work towards surgery. It is not at all likely that a man could limit himself to surgery and be making a living within ten years, even a bare living, but I believe there would be a field for a well trained person doing general practice in St. Paul with the idea of eventually going into surgery.
Yours very sincerely,
H. B. Zimmerman, M.D.