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Show SOME ADDED COMMENT By the Editor A few years ago Grand Rapids, Mich , had a slum that was called Hell's Half Acre, a bleak, poverty-stricken region from which came most of the city's juvenile crime: There were in this place 450 boys and girls and from them the average arrests ar-rests for each year were 15. Churches tried.extra police tried, citizens tried, all failed. One day a man got an idea, he said, "You can't prevent crime with either hymn-singing or a cop's night stick. Keep 'em busy, so busy they don't have time for devilment." A little fund wasraised. Joe Louis refer-reed refer-reed a fight for them aad quite a sum was raised. They built a real club house, and through that club house the police, kindly and decently, attacked crime in its own dirty back yard The next year instead of 135 arrests there was but one. And shortly there was none. Think of it a club house of their own where they could play and whoop, laugh and jump and swim and run and so on, and with decent treatment they were remade. It cost about $2o per bo.v to make a good one out of a bad one. Is it worth that much? Verily yes. |