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    "localId": "6857694",
    "label": "Letter from Arthur R. Boyden to the President Describing the Effect of Unemployment on Crime",
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    "id": "6857694",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Letter from Arthur R. Boyden to the President Describing the Effect of Unemployment on Crime",
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    "productionDates": [
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            "day": 5,
            "logicalDate": "1929-08-05",
            "month": 8,
            "year": 1929
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    "ocrText": "a\nwow\nHollywood, California August\n5,1929 Alle (HE 1/29, <\nR 8 of\nMy Dear Mr.\nIhave been particularly interested in press\nnotices regarding your commission for the study of crime. As a\nnewspaper man of about twenty-five years standing and through my\nexperiences as a big brother etc. I have come in contact with many\ncriminals, especially among the younger generation and I have dis-\ncovered that a majority of the boys who become criminals have\nbeen more or less forced into such a life through lack of employ-\nment;attempting to hold down jobs which they were unfitted for and\ndisliked or because they were the product of broken homes.\nPersonally I believe if the unempl oyment situation\nwas cleaned up crime would decrease very perceptibly Of course it\nmay be conceit or ego but I believe that I have a solution for the\nunemployment situation. That is the reason for this letter.\nIdle men and women are like idle machines, a lia-\nbility instead of an asset. Unlike maghines, idle humans must eat\nand sleep and, if they can not secure employment, than many of them\ntake other methods of procuring these things. Usually criminal\nmethods.\nNow supposing every merchant, every manufacturer\nand other employers of labor were to put on every man or woman they\ncould what would happen? For a time they would be an expense but\ndoes it not stand to reason that when all of these additional per-\nsons were working and earning money that it would stimulate buy-\ning? And would not all of the companies benefit through this\nemployment? Think of the additional money that would be put into\ncirculation. Idle men and women do not spend money but men and women\nwho are employed do. It seems to me that if a movement such as I"
}