HQ 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
SOJJT 
 
A Study of Family Desertion 
 
 By 
 
 EARLE EDWARD EUBANK, Ph. D. 
 
 (University of Chicago) 
 
 Published by 
 
 THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WELFARE 
 
 CITY OF CHICAGO 
 
 1916. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 I. INTRODUCTION 1 
 
 The Family as a Subject for Scientific Study 1 
 
 Desertion a Phenomenon common to the Family 2 
 
 Desertion common to all parts of the world. 2 
 
 Desertion manifested in all periods of history 3 
 
 Sources of Material 5 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM 9 
 
 Desertion a Problem of the City 9 
 
 Desertion more frequently Manifested in the Husband 14 
 
 Desertion not a Racial Phenomenon 15 
 
 Desertion not a Phenomenon of Religion or Sect 17 
 
 Desertion as "the Poor Man's Divorce" 17 
 
 Desertion not Primarily due to Economic Conditions 20 
 
 III. EXTENT OF DESERTION 22 
 
 Incompleteness of Statistical Data on Desertion 22 
 
 Statistics on Desertion 22 
 
 IV. SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DESERTION* 27 
 
 Effects upon the Family 27 
 
 Demoralization of its members 28 
 
 Relief from the burden of an unhappy family life 31 
 
 Effects upon Society 32 
 
 Financial cost 32 
 
 Moral cost 35 
 
 V. DESERTION TYPES 37 
 
 Analysis by Types as a Method of Study 37 
 
 The spurious deserter 37 
 
 The gradual deserter 38 
 
 The "intermittent husband" 41 
 
 The ill-advised marriage type 45 
 
 The "last resort" type 47 
 
 The Vanished Husband 49 
 
 The Reclaimable versus the Irreclaimable Deserter 49 
 
 VI. TREATMENT OF DESERTION 51 
 
 Phases of Treatment 51 
 
 With reference to the deserter 51 
 
 With reference to the abandoned family 60 
 
 VII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ... 64 
 
 A Suggested Policy of Treatment 64 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 69 
 
"If the family, or rather the home, is in any considerable 
 degree to social science what the atom is to physics and the cell 
 is to biology, it is almost inevitable that social science must fol- 
 low the method of those sciences so far at least as to concen- 
 trate attention on its study and discover that the home contains 
 within it the great secret of all the social sciences. Indeed if 
 this be true, the problems of the several social sciences them- 
 selves depend on this work for the home. Especially is it true 
 of the problems of government, economics, religion and ped- 
 agogy, that they all need a scientific knowledge of the home as 
 an indispensable condition of their solution." S. W. Dike, 
 "The Problem of the Family," Congress of Arts and Sciences, 
 1904, VII, 721. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introduction 
 
 1 THE FAMILY AS A SUBJECT FOR SCIENTIFIC STUDY. 
 
 Today, as truly as in times past, the family is the "principal social factor" 
 in the life of man. Within it are combined activities which have as their end 
 "the one general fnncton of preserving the physical and psychical continuity 
 of the race." 1 It is thus a biological fact before it becomes, with the sanction of 
 formal marriage, a social institution. 
 
 Although the family is the most ancient of social organizations it is one of 
 the latest to be made the subject of scientific analysis and investigation. It has 
 escaped until recent years the searching inquiries which science is accustomed 
 to make into physical phenomena. Whether this has been due to its very near- 
 ness, which has caused it to be overlooked as a subject for study, or to its inti- 
 mate and tender associations which make scientific investigations seem akin to 
 sacrilege, or whether the state of public opinion has been responsible for a re- 
 luctance to meddle with the delicate questions which its relations involve, it has 
 until lately been comparatively immune from analysis and criticism. 1 
 
 As recently as a quarter of a century ago Dr. S. W. Dike felt the importance 
 of calling attention to the fact that the family as an institution was at that time 
 scarcely recognized. 
 
 "It is not easy to find the term 'family' in national or state constitutions. 
 It is by no means frequent on our statute books. Indeed the title has found 
 is way into the encyclopedias only in recent years. We have come at the 
 family in fragments and legislated accordingly. Our ideas of it are ex- 
 tremely individualistic, and so we are dominated by the conception of mar- 
 riage as a mere contract, with little thought of the family and relations of 
 status." 3 
 
 Even those important writers who touched upon the subject of the family 
 did not undertake to consider it in its modern aspects nor in any relation to cur- 
 rent problems. As early as 1851 Sir Henry Maine and Bachofen had written of 
 the family. Later came the works of Spencer, Morgan, Lubbock, McLennan, 
 Hearn, Lyall, de Coulanges, Starcke, Westermarck and others, but 
 
 "all these dealt more or less directly with the family but in ancient or 
 early types of society. Still there was no study of the family in any of our 
 higher educational institutions. There was no book on the family in the 
 English language prior to 1880."* 
 
 It has been left almpst to our own generation to discover the significance of 
 the family as a icliole, and to consider it in its vital relations to law, education, 
 economics and morality. That the past two or three decades have seen a 
 marked change in the popular attitude toward the family is due, partly at least, 
 to the fact that the machinery of family life does not seem of late years to be 
 working as smoothly as it should. 5 
 
 1. Small and Vincc-nt, Introduction to the Study of Society, p. 250. 
 
 2. W. Goodsell, The Family as a Social and Educational Institution, p. 2. 
 
 3. S. W. Dike, "Problems of the Family," Century Maf/ozine. XXXIX (1889), 
 393. 
 
 4. S. TV. Dike, "The Problem of the Family," Congress of Arts and Sciences, 
 1904. VII. 712. 
 
 "It is mainly in recent years that the family as an institution has attracted 
 the attention of the thinker and historian. It is so intimate a part of life, so inseparable 
 from existence in all normal communities, that, like the air we breathe, it eludes 
 observation, and \ve only notice it when something goes wrong." Helen Bosanquet, 
 The Family, p. 7. 
 
2 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 "The increase almost everywhere throughout the civilized world of the 
 rate of divorce and the immense volume of it in the United States, the de- 
 crease of the marriage rate, and the postponement of marriage, the preva- 
 lence of unchastity and the lightness with which its offenses are regarded, 
 the decrease of the birth-rate among those best fitted by their own training 
 and resources to rear large families, the growing self-assertion of youth, and 
 the lessened power of the home over character, have combined to bring the 
 family to the front as one of the most vital subjects for practical considera- 
 tion." * 
 
 The significance of manifestations such as the ones mentioned lies in the 
 fact that they are (indicative of important changes which the nature of the 
 family is experiencing. Whether we approve or not, we are continually being 
 made aware that under the influence of changing social and economic conditions 
 the character of the family is undergoing a marked modification. In many ways 
 a process of disintegration is going on and the cohesive elements in its struc- 
 ture are becoming less powerful. The stability of the home seems to be less 
 than it has been in the past, and the result, in many instances, is the complete 
 breaking down of the family itself. 
 
 This latter day tendency toward family disintegration is not merely an in- 
 teresting fact. A large importance lies in the intimate relation of the family to 
 other social institutions and phenomena. Any alteration in the family must of 
 necessity profoundly affect them. 
 
 "The relation of the home as a social unity, to poverty, crime, intem- 
 perance and other vice, is worthy of the search of the statistician under the 
 direction of social science. The composition of the family, its housing, its 
 relation to the industry of its members and society, its influence in supply- 
 ing the saloon, the brothel, the almshouse and the prison with victims, or in 
 resisting the allurements of these places of vice, as well as its own suf- 
 ferings from them, are subjects of pressing importance." 2 
 
 Family desertion is one of the ways in which the dissolution of the bonds 
 which unite the members of the family manifests itself. Like divorce, it is a 
 problem of the disintegration of the family. When it occurs the physical union 
 which is the biological basis of marriage is terminated; the economic organiza- 
 tion of the family whereby it normally maintains itself as an independent group 
 Is disturbed, and readjustment is necessitated for the provision of those who are 
 left without support; the ties of affection and sentiment which have given 
 greatest strength and most complete unity to the family group are broken down. 
 
 In the United States especially desertion is increasingly forcing itself upon 
 public attention. The object of the present monograph is to analyze the con- 
 ditions out of which it arises and if possible to discern the causes. Desertion is 
 to be considered as one of the forms of family disintegration. What is its extent? 
 What are its characteristics? In what variety of ways does it find expres- 
 sion? What is its social significance, and in what ways does it appear to be a 
 complicating factor in questions of dependency, delinquency and immorality? 
 What measures in the past have been employed in dealing with it? What prac- 
 tical conclusions may be deduced concerning its social treatment? These are 
 some of the outstanding matters which will be considered. 
 
 2 DESERTION A PHENOMENON COMMON TO THE FAMILY. 
 
 A. Desertion Common to all Parts of the World. 
 
 The desertion of families is not a manifestation peculiar to American society. 
 Eighteen countries besides our own have specifically recognized its existence 
 
 1. S. W. Dike, "The Problems of the Family," Congress of Arts and Sciences, 1904, 
 VII, 709. 
 
 2. S. W. Dike, "Problems of the Family." Century Magazine, XXXIX (1889), 386. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 to the extent of making it a ground for divorce. In five others it is accepted as 
 a ground for legal separation. 1 
 
 Nor is desertion confined to civilized society. We are told by missionaries 
 and others who have lived with primitive peoples that it is not an uncommon oc- 
 currence among them.- 
 
 B Desertion Manifested in all Periods of History. 
 
 Neither is desertion a manifestation peculiar to present day society. It's 
 presence has long been recognized even though it has not; been studied. 
 
 As early as 1685 desertion began to be recognized as a problem in the 
 American colonies, and the record of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 
 contains the following language: 
 
 "Whereas severall complaints have been made to the Generall Assem- 
 bly of this Colony by several women concerning their husbands deserting 
 them and so absenting themselves, not only to neglect providing for them, 
 but also they cannot be heard from, which matters if not timely prevented, 
 may give occasions for persons to break forth to the committing of folly, 
 who otherwise might live honestly amongst their neighbors: for the pre- 
 venting of such miscarriages let it be enacted by this Assembly and by the 
 authority thereof, that if either husband or wife have or shall so desert 
 their husband or wife, that they cannot be heard of in five years' time after 
 their departure of said husband or wife, the said husband or wife shall be 
 free from their said husband or wife. Only it is provided, that foreasmuch 
 as a negative cannot otherwise be made to appear, therefore the person, be 
 it husband or wife that expects relief, shall positively give their engage- 
 ment, together with the circumstances agreeing before a Court, that they 
 have not heard from their said husband or wife so absenting themselves 
 five years' time as aforesaid, whereupon the absent party shall be deemed 
 as dead, and therefore the grieved party be released; anything to the con- 
 trary in any wise, notwithstanding. 
 
 John Greene, Clerke, 
 Oct. 30, 1685. per John Sanford, Recorder." 
 
 That the mother country had recognized this as a national question long 
 before is shown by her Poor Laws of 1609: 
 
 "And for that many wilful people, finding that they have children, 
 have some hope to have relief from the parish wherein they dwell, and 
 being able to labour, and thereby to relieve themselves and their families, 
 do nevertheless run away out of their parishes and leave their families upon 
 the parish; (2) for remedy whereof, be it further enacted by this present 
 parliament, and authority of the same, That all such persons so running 
 away shall be deemed to incorrigible rogues: (3) and if either such man or 
 woman, being able to work, and shall threaten to run away and leave their 
 
 1. Countries ichere desertion is ground for divorce: Argentine Republic; Australia 
 (Victoria and New South Wales only) ; Austria; Bulgaria; Denmark; France ("injures 
 graves" in the French law is interpreted to cover wilful desertion. Vide, E. Glasson, 
 "Divorce," Le grande encyclopedic, XIV. 757); Germany; Greec ; Hungary (includ- 
 ing Croatia and Slavonia) ; Japan; Netherlands; New Zealand; Norway; Russia Cm 
 Finland, and for Lutherans in Russia proper) ; Scot'and ; Servia ; Sweden; Switzerland. 
 
 Countries where desertion is ground for legal separation: Canada (Ontario. New 
 Brunswick, Manitoba, British Columbia. Prince Edward Island and Quebec) ; England 
 and Wales ; Ireland ; Italy ; Mexico. 
 
 (This statement compiled from U. S. Special Census Report: Marriage and Divorce, 
 1867-1906, I, and from Hyacinthe Ringrose, Marriage and Divorce Laws of the World.) 
 
 2. Among primitives, however, it is usually the woman who deserts, driven by 
 desire to escape from the toil or abuse imposed on her by the man. The husband does 
 not desert because the woman's ability to work and to bear children is an economic 
 asset from which he does not desire to run away. If she is no longer valuab'e to him 
 in these ways, or if he wearies of her, primitive law and custom permit him to divorce 
 her. 
 
 In early society in general the right of divorce was given to man before it was 
 conceded to woman. For this reason divorce was then more commonly the husband's 
 method of obtaining release if it was desired, and desertion that of the wife. 
 
 3. Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantat : ons in Xew 
 England, 1678-1706, III, 181-82. Edited (1858) by John Russell Bartlett, Secretary of 
 State. 
 
\ 
 
 *y A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 families as aforesaid, the same being proved by two sufficient witnesses 
 upon oath, before two justices of peace in that division; that the said per- 
 sons so threatening shall by the said justices of peace be sent to the houses 
 of correction, (unless he or she can put in sufficient sureties for the dis- 
 charge of the parish) there to be dealt with and detained as a sturdy and 
 wandering rogue, and to be delivered at the said assembly or meeting, or 
 at the quarter-sessions, and not otherwise." * 
 
 But desertion, and laws against desertion, were in existence long before our 
 era, as is revealed by an examination of the great legislative codes of the 
 ancient world. 
 
 The Sacred Laws of the Aryas, at least two or three and possibly six cen- 
 turies before the Christian era, were specific on the point. In Apastam'ba's 
 Aphorisms on the Sacred Law we read: 
 
 "He who has unjustly forsaken his wife shall put on an ass's skin, 
 
 with the hair turned outside, and beg in seven houses saying 'Give alms to 
 
 him who forsook his wife.' That shall be his livelihood for six months. 
 "But if a wife forsakes her husband she shall perform the twelve-night 
 
 Krikkhra penance for as long a time." - 
 
 Again, in the Institutes of Vishnu: 
 
 "(Abandoning) one's holy fire, or one's father, mother, son or wife 
 * * * such criminals in the fourth degree shall perform the Kandrayana 
 or Paraka penances, or shall sacrifice a cow (as the case may require)." 3 
 
 Again, in the Vasistha Dharmdsastra: 
 
 "A wife (though) tainted by sin, whether she be quarrelsome or have 
 left a house or have suffered criminal force, or have fallen into the hands of 
 thieves, must not be abandoned; to forsake her is not prescribed (by sacred 
 law)." 4 
 
 Again, in the Laws of Manu: 
 
 "To a Bramana (householder), or to an ascetic who comes for food, he 
 may with the permission of (his) Bramana (guests), show honor according 
 to his ability. 
 
 "Let him mix all kinds of food together, sprinkle them with water, and 
 put them, scattering them (on Kusa grass), down on the ground in front of 
 (his guests), when they have finished the meal. 
 
 "The remnant (in the dishes), and the portion scattered on Kusa grass, 
 shall be the share of deceased (children) who receive not the sacrament 
 (of cremation) and of those who (unjustly) forsook noble wives." 5 
 
 Once more, from the Minor Law Books: 
 
 "Those must not be examined as witnesses who are interested in the 
 suit, nor friends, nor associates, nor enemies, nor notorious offenders, nor 
 persons tainted (with a heavy sin), * * * nor an atheist, nor a Vratya, 
 nor one who has forsaken his wife or his fire." 
 
 Most ancient of all recorded legislation in this field is that of Hammurabi, 
 King of Babylon, who, approximately 2250 B. C. found this a sufficiently exten- 
 sive evil to warrant a decree to the effect that a deserted wife might have the 
 right to remarry: 
 
 1. The 7 tli James 1st Cap. 4, Sec. 8, as published in the English Statutes at Large, 
 VII, 225-26. Edited by Danby Pickering. 
 
 2. The Sacred Books of the East, II, 89, Sees. 19 and 20. Edited by F. Max Milller. 
 (Translation by Georg. Biihler. ) 
 
 3. Ibid., VII, 135, 138. Sees. 6 and 35. (Translation by Julius Jolly.) 
 
 4. Ibid., XIV, 133, Sees. 2 and 3. 
 
 ">. Ibid.. XXV, 120, Sees. 243, 244 and 245. (Translated by Georg. Buhler.) 
 6. Ibid., XXXIII, 86-87, Sees. 177 and 180. (Translation by Julius Jolly.) In 
 this same category of those who must not be allowed to serve as witnesses in 'a trial, 
 included with wife deserters are such persons as these: Slaves, imposters, drunken 
 men. madnn-n. eunuchs, poisoners, weather-prophets, malicious persons, betrayers of 
 friends, forgers, quacks, etc. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 "If a man desert his city and flee and afterward his wife enter into 
 another house; if that man return and would take his wife, the wife of the 
 fugitive shall not return because he hated his city and fled." x 
 
 Although the rate of desertion will vary from time to time and from place 
 to place its extensiveness and persistence as indicated in the foregoing rec- 
 ords lead to the conclusion that it is a well nigh universal phenomenon. It 
 indicates that desertion is as old as the family and co-extensive with it, and that 
 it springs out of its very nature, from the friction and conflict of opinions and 
 interests inevitably engendered in the intimacy of the family relation itself. 
 
 3 SOURCES OF MATERIAL. 
 
 The sources of information for the study of desertion are very meagre. 
 
 Only of late has there been the possibility of studying any phase of the 
 family scientifically on an extensive scale. Before the introduction of a system 
 of social statistics a step taken almost within our memory it was impossible 
 for a community to investigate disinterestedly and over a wide area the con- 
 ditions and modifications of family life.- Until recent years we have been dis- 
 posed to regard the union of man and wife as a matter of private contract, and 
 consequently have dealt with the individuals composing the family on an in- 
 dividualistic basis. 
 
 The first. serious attempt in this country to study the relations of the family 
 on a large scale was made by Hon. Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor. 
 In 1889 under his direction appeared A Report on Marriage and Divorce in the 
 United States. J867-'Sf>. Two decades later appeared A Special Report on Mar- 
 riage and Divorce. J861-1906. by the Bureau of the Census, S. N. D. North, 
 Director, which in addition to its own, incorporated the findings of the former 
 report. 
 
 Much of the interest in the institution of the family now general throughout 
 the country may be directly traced to the startling disclosures as to the rapid 
 increase of divorce made by these reports. Since then a flood of literature 
 which increases daily has been produced dealing with the family, and particu- 
 larly with the matter of divorce. 
 
 The interest in family desertion is of more recent date. Until recent years 
 it has not presented itself to students of social life as a problem that could be 
 isolated, and so dealt with and studjed as a phenomenon distinct from divorce 
 and legal separation for which it is so frequently offered as a ground. 
 
 The scanty information we possess has been secured primarily through 
 charity organization societies and professional social workers. The work of or- 
 ganized charity is essentially with the institution of the family and with the in- 
 dividual as a member of a family. "Family rehabilitation" is the familiar term 
 descriptive of the task of the charity worker. Where rehabilitation does not 
 seem possible or where the family cannot furnish the special type of care that 
 is required special institutions are provided to take the place of the family. Al- 
 though the charities may not fully have recognized the fact in the past, and 
 perhaps it is not yet generally recognized by the public, it is nevertheless true 
 that the family is the starting point for practically every measure of social re- 
 adjustment." 
 
 1. The Code of Hammurabi, Sec. 136. Harper's translation, p. 47. 
 
 2. Vide, W. D. Morrison, Crime and Its Causes. Chap. 1. 
 
 3. "In philanthropy we note a steadily growing recognition of the place of the 
 home in social reform. The charitable insf'tution where large numbers of children 
 have been gathered for care has given place to the single home. For it has been found 
 that the average home available for the care of destitute children is a more natural, 
 and, therefore, a better place for the training of the chi'd than the artificial life ofta 
 great caravansary. Poor relief is abandon'ng its former habit of relianc" on the alms- 
 house and the gift of money. It now seeks to keep the family together and to put the 
 home on its own feet and to leave it to self-support. The "use of social settlements 
 in our cities tends strongly in the same direction. Indeed, it is almost a first prin- 
 ciple of all expert charitable work now to make respect for the home and all possible 
 use of its resources a cardinal principle of all philanthropic effort." S. W. Dike, "The 
 Problem of the Family," Congress of Arts and Sciences, 1904, VII. 714-15. 
 
6 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 it 
 
 Therefore it is to be expected that the facts concerning desertion should 
 first of all attract attention and stimulate inquiry among those practically en- 
 gaged in social welfare work. Among these the general opinion seems to pre- 
 vail that desertion is increasing this in spite of the fact that every state of 
 the union has made desertion or non-support a criminal offense. 1 
 
 "Of the replies received to the question addressed to many charitable 
 and humane societies throughout the country as to whether the evil (deser- 
 tion) was decreasing or increasing, nine per cent declare that it is decreas- 
 ing, twenty-seven per cent think it is stationary, while sixty-four per cent 
 declare that it is increasing." - 
 
 Possibly it is this general impression that has led certain charities in re- 
 cent years, particularly since 1900, to make a more clearly defined effort to un- 
 derstand desertion. A catalog of all definite studies in the field, however, is not 
 extensive. 
 
 In 1901 appeared the first, Miss Zilpha D. Smith's Deserted Wives and De- 
 serting Husbands: a study of 23'f families based on the experience of the dis- 
 trict committees and agents of the Associated Charities of Boston. This was 
 prepared from one year's record of cases while Miss Smith was General Secre- 
 tary of the Boston organization. 
 
 This was followed in 1902 by a study by a special committee appointed for 
 the purpose, of 211 cases which came under the care of the Philadelphia So- 
 ciety for Organizing Charity during that year. 
 
 In 1905 was published Miss Lillian Brandt's Five Hundred and Seventy-four 
 Deserters and their Families: a descriptive study of their characteristics and 
 circumstances. This differed from the former two in that it was not confined 
 to the study of local cases, but was based on information obtained from twenty- 
 six organizations in fifteen states. 
 
 Desertion has been a topic of discussion at four of the annual meetings of 
 the National Conference of Charities and Corrections: 1902, 1905, 1911 and 1912. 
 At the second of these a report of a special committee, with resolutions, was 
 adopted by the body. 
 
 The National Conference of Catholic Charities has had the subject under 
 formal consideration once: in 1912. 
 
 The most practical consideration that the matter has received has been at 
 the hands of the National Conference of Jewish Charities. Special committees 
 appointed reported with specific recommendations at the meetings of the Con- 
 ference in 1900 and 1906. In 1910 it was again taken up, this time being made 
 the chief topic of treatment by 'the Conference. The establishment of the Na- 
 tional Desertion Bureau February 1, 1911, with headquarters at New York City, 
 was the outgrowth of this. The Bureau has published two valuable reports, the 
 first in April, 1912, the second in November, 1915. 
 
 Desertion has been under consideration nineteen times by various state 
 conferences of Charities and Correction. 
 
 Abroad the question has been made the subject of special study in the city 
 of Glasgow, Scotland. It has been treated in a series of four pamphlets by Mr. 
 James R. Motion, Inspector of the Poor and Clerk to the Parish Council of 
 Glasgow, under dates of June, 1909, October, 1909, June, 1912, and February, 
 1913. 
 
 In addition to these sources of information, all of which have originated 
 with charitable societies or conferences, is the special report of the Federal 
 Census Office, already mentioned: Marriage and Divorce, 1867-1906. In this 
 report are contained the only extensive statistics -on desertion which have been 
 compiled in this country. Because they are the most comprehensive figures 
 available reference will be made to them in the papes to follow. For several 
 reasons, however, they cannot be accepted at face value: 
 
 1. Vide, Win. H. Baldwin, "The Present Status of Family Desertion and Non- 
 support Laws," p. 2. Abstract appears in Proceedings of the National Conference of 
 Charities and Correction, 1911, p. 406. 
 
 2. Wm. H. Baldwin, op. cit. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 i. They are incomplete. They cover only thpse desertions where divorce 
 action was taken in which desertion was given as the ground. Consequently no 
 record is included of the vast number of desertions which have taken place with 
 no attempt made to secure divorce. 
 
 ii. They contain variations which may "be due to other things than actual 
 fluctuation in the desertion rate. 1 (a) These may be due to difference in state 
 laws. New York, for example, shows an extremely low percentage of desertion, 
 because desertion is not admitted as a ground of divorce in that state. Other 
 states having liberal laws attract a population which comes for the express pur- 
 pose of securing divorce, and so have recorded a higher divorce rate than is 
 properly theirs. Nevada is an example, (b) The existence of customs, tradi- 
 tions or ethical standards opposed to desertion will make for a lower rate, (c) 
 Divorce will be lower where there is a large Roman Catholic population because 
 their church forbids divorce for any cause, desertion included, (d) The deser- 
 tion rate will be affected by unequal distribution of ethnic stocks due to immi- 
 gration, which affects the divorce rate. 
 
 iii. They may not always be statistics of l>ona fide desertions. The 
 author of the article on "Divorce" in the New International Encyclopedia calls 
 attention to a fact which is common knowledge in divorce courts, viz., that de- 
 sertion is the most easily and commonly abused of all grounds for divorce. 
 Couples wishing to be released from matrimonial bonds in casting about for the 
 most "respectable" ground upon which to base their petition frequently decide 
 upon desertion. By collusion an apparent desertion may be affected which in 
 reality does not exist, or which exists for the sole purpose of creating a techni- 
 cal case for the plaintiff. What the Federal statistics reveal, then, is not neces- 
 sarily the number of times desertion has been a cause for divorce, but the num- 
 ber of times it has been alleged and accepted as a legal ground for divorce. 
 
 The studies which have been mentioned, together with special papers which 
 have been published from time to time, constitute the secondary sources of the 
 present study. 
 
 The primary sources have been the case records of the Chicago Court of 
 Domestic Relations, and concrete cases aided by the United Charities of Chi- 
 cago. 
 
 The Chicago Court of Domestic Relations was started April 3, 1911, as a 
 branch of the Municipal Court. Its business is to try all cases wherein are in- 
 volved criminal breaches of domestic relations, one of its objects, as outlined 
 originally by Judge Charles M. Goodnow is, "to inaugurate a system whereby 
 delinquent deserters may be promptly compelled to support their wives and 
 children, thus forcing the one upon whom that obligation rests to perform that 
 duty and to relieve the charitable public of another burden." 2 The court has 
 kept an individual record of the cases brought before it, and from these 327 de- 
 sertions have been selected those being chosen whose information seemed 
 most complete for the tabulation of statistical data concerning some of the 
 characteristics of desertion in general. 
 
 Of these 327. two hundred are cases which representatives of the Juvenile 
 Protective Association of Chicago have personally visited and studied. The ma- 
 terial which they have obtained has not been published, and it is through the 
 courtesy of that organization that a part of their information has been included 
 in some of the tables which are to follow. 
 
 An intensive study has been made of the cases aided by the United Chari- 
 ties of Chicago. From the files of the Stock Yards District of this society more 
 than six hundred families were taken, the cases which have come to their atten- 
 tion over a five year period. All of these have been visited personally by the 
 visitors from the United Charities; many of them have been visited again in 
 particular connection with this study. These are the cases which have fur- 
 
 1. Cf., J. P. Lichtenberger, Divorce, a Study in Social Causation, Chap. xiii. 
 
 2. From a statement prepared by Mrs. Gertrude Howe Britton, Superintendent of 
 the Juvenile Protective Association, for the voters of Chicago, Sept. 30, 1914. 
 
8 , A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 nished the concrete material for analysis. From them has been made the 
 classification of desertion types, and they have afforded the bulk of the illustra- 
 tive material used. 1 
 
 In an attempt to get statistical material from as wide a range as possible 
 letters were sent out to seventy charity organization societies of the leading 
 cities of the United States and Canada, distributed among thirty-eight states 
 and three provinces; and to twenty-four societies of fifteen countries abroad. 
 Answers have been received from thirty-two American and six foreign societies. 
 Letters were sent also to twenty Jewish charity organization societies of the 
 United States; to the divorce courts of sixteen of the larger cities of the coun- 
 try; to the seven courts of domestic relations; and to twelve cities known to 
 have departments of public outdoor relief. 
 
 In an attempt to locate every study and all literature to which the subject 
 has given rise in the United States requests for co-operation which have met 
 with cordial response were sent to the secretaries of the National Conference 
 of Charities and Correction, and the thirty-three state conferences of Charities 
 and Correction; to The Survey; the Russell Sage Foundation; the New York 
 School of Philanthropy; The National Desertion Bureau; and to the leading 
 social service agencies of Chicago. 
 
 1. Charity cases have been selected as a basis for this study primarily because 
 more cases are available among them, and because information concerning' them is 
 fuller than among families which are not under obligation to philanthropic societies. 
 Much important information is obtainable from the record of the society before going 
 to the family itself, for it has been previously recorded as part of the regular pro- 
 cedure of the society preliminary to giving relief. Being known personally, as these 
 families are, to regular visitors of the society, information can be gathered from these 
 officials in addition to that contained in the records. Finally, deserted families which 
 have applied for charity and have become familiar with its inquiries are less apt to be 
 suspicious or resentful of sympathetic investigation which is so essent'al to a study of 
 this kind. Whatever conclusions respecting desertion may be reached in the following 
 pages are therefore based mainly upon desertions which have occurred among the 
 dependent c'asses, or among those whom desertion has thrown into dependency, and not 
 upon cases where desertion is unaccompanied by dependency. 
 
 These latter would constitute a separate problem, and possibly some of the con- 
 clusions reached here would not apply there. At the present writing it does not appear 
 how a study of such cases would be undertaken, nor what sources of material would 
 appea r. 
 
 In the words of Mr. Win. H. Baldwin. "The interest of the public attaches by reason 
 of the non-support, rather than the absence in the case of family desertion." It is to 
 rases of this class which the following pages particularly devote themselves. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Analysis of the Problem. 
 
 1 DESERTION A PROBLEM OF THE CITY. 
 
 Desertion as we know it, and insofar, at least, as it has been studied, is a 
 problem of the city. General observation leads to the conclusion that it is more 
 particularly an urban than a rural problem. Exact information upon this point 
 is lacking, yet there is reason for the assumption. 
 
 As desertion is the most popular ground for divorce in the United States 1 
 we are justified in supposing that where there are more divorces there will be 
 also more desertions included in the number except in those states which do 
 not admit desertion as a legal ground, viz., New York, North Carolina, South 
 Carolina (which does not grant divorce for any cause) and the District of 
 Columbia. That divorce rates are higher in the city than in the country is 
 shown to be highly probable by the tables prepared by the Federal Census 
 Office. Excluding states having counties whose records were lacking or in- 
 complete, twenty-eight states remained, including the District of Columbia, 
 which permitted an accurate comparison between the divorce rate for city 
 counties and other counties. The conclusions of the Census Office, based upon 
 the tables, are expressed in the following words: 
 
 "In all but three of the twenty-eight states shown in the table, the 
 divorce rate in 1900 was greater in the city counties than in the other coun- 
 ties. The three exceptions were New York, Pennsylvania and Oregon. In 
 New Jersey. Connecticut and Michigan, the excess of the rate in the city 
 counties was comparatively slight, but in the remaining twenty-two states 
 it was considerable, varying from 10 in Louisiana to 166 in' Iowa. As a 
 broad general statement, therefore, it may be safely said that the divorce 
 rate in cities of at least 100,000 inhabitants is greater than it is in small 
 cites and in country districts. The figures for the earlier decades suggest, 
 moreover, that the divorce rate has always been higher in the large cities 
 than in the smaller cities and country districts." - 
 
 Mr. "\V. F. Wilcox, one of the foremost authorities upon divorce in the 
 
 United States, inclines to the same opinion." 
 
 Not only is the divorce rate, as we are led to believe, absolutely higher in 
 urban than in rural communities, but relatively it is higher still since the pro- 
 portion of married persons in the adult population is lower in urban populations. 4 
 
 Although no studies have been made in the United States of the relative 
 frequency of divorce, desertion and family disintegration in general in the cities 
 as compared with the rural regions, we find that the former far more than the 
 latter supply conditions which seem likely to loosen family ties and to change 
 
 1. Of 945.62.5 divorces granted in the United States from 1SS7 to 1906. 415.o4r>. 
 or 4M.9 pn- cent, wciv on th<- ground of desertion or abandonment, and in 38 9 per cent 
 this was thi-- sole cause given. Cruelty ranks a distant second and was the sole cause 
 given in only IS. 5 per cent of the cas^s Special Reports of the United State* Census 
 Office: Marriage and Divorce, 1867-1906, I, 81. 
 
 :>. On. cit., I. 18-19. 
 
 3. "Divorce is probably especiallv frequent among the native population of the 
 United States, and among these probably more common in the city than in the country. 
 This statement cannot be established absolutely, since statistics afford no means of 
 distinguishing the native from the foreign-born applicants. It is. however, the most 
 obvious reason for explaining the fact that, while in Europe the c : ty divorce rate is 
 from three to five times as great as that of the surrounding country, the difference in 
 the United States between the two regions is very much less. In other words, the great 
 number of foreigners in American cities probably tends to obscure, by a low divorc 
 rate [since they are predominantly Roman Catholic and so forbidden by the Church 
 to obtain divorce], the high rate of the native population." Encyclopedia Brittanira, 
 article on "Divorce." 
 
 4. Urban male. 54.7 per cent. : rural. 56.8 per cent. Urban female, 54.6 per cent. ; 
 rural, 63.3 per cent. Abstract, Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910, p. 163. 
 
10 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 / 
 
 the essential character of the domestic relation. Desertion is one of the re- 
 sults of domestic instability. We think of it today as peculiarly a problem of 
 the city because "of the numerous elements within the city which make for 
 domestic instability. 
 
 (a) In the city the restraint of the mores is less because of the absence of 
 primary group attachments. 
 
 "To have an effective public opinion holding people to their duties it is 
 important that men should live long in one place and in one group, inherit- 
 ing traditional ideas and enforcing them upon one another. All breaking up 
 of old associations involves an 'individualism' which is nowhere more 
 active than in family relations." l 
 
 "In small and rude communities every free man, or at best every head 
 of a household, feels his own significance and realizes his own independence. 
 
 * * * His will and action count for something in the affairs of the com- 
 munity he belongs to." 2 
 
 In the smaller community residence is relatively permanent, a larger pro- 
 portion of homes and property are owned; and by virtue of this fact neighbor- 
 hoods come to acquire a fixed and recognized character which in a way attaches 
 to the persons composing them. 
 
 "The protection and care of a piece of property makes for thoughtful- 
 ness and steadiness, individualizes. * * * This property, so responsive 
 to care or neglect, is a standing challenge to self-control. * * * The 
 man owns his home, but in a sense his home owns him, checking his rash 
 impulses, holding out of the human whirlpool." 3 
 
 The fact of one's being comparatively fixed and identified with a given 
 locality tends to establish a permanent relationship with the group. The ex- 
 istence of the individual is merged with that of the group in a personal and pe- 
 culiar way. From month to month, from year to year he reacts upon and is 
 reacted upon by the same set of more or less familiar acquaintances. He is 
 mindful of their opinions and influenced by them as are they by his. Theirs is 
 a primary group 
 
 "characterized by intimate, face-to-face association and co-operation * * 
 
 * fundamental in forming the social nature and ideals of the individual. 
 The result of intimate association, psychologically, is a certain fusion of 
 individualties in a common whole, so that the very self, for many purposes 
 at least, is the common life and purpose of the group." 4 
 
 So long as the individual is a part of such a group he is bound by local at- 
 tachments and restraints, governed and controlled by the mores of the group, 
 in a way which he cannot ignore. 8 
 
 "The growth of cities has been accompanied by the substitution of in- 
 direct, 'secondary,' for face-to-face, 'primary' relationship in the associa- 
 tions of individuals in the community. * * * A very large part of the 
 population of great cities, including those who make their homes in tene- 
 ments and apartment houses, live much as people do in some great hotel, 
 meeting but not knowing one another. The effect of this is to substitute 
 fortuitous and casual relationship for the more intimate and permanent as- 
 
 1. C. H. Cooley, Social Organisation, pp. 369-70. 
 
 2. James Brice, The American Commonwealth, II, Chap. Ixxxiv. 
 
 3. E. A. Ross, Social Psychology, p. 87. 
 
 4. C. H. Cooley, op. cit., p. 15. 
 
 5. "Tout d'abord, puisque le souci de 1'opinion publique est un traite caracter- 
 istique de notre nature, il est a remarquer qu'un cult'vateur est beaucoup plus retenu 
 qu'un ouvrier par la crainte du scandale. Dans les petites localitSs, ou. tout le monde se 
 connait ou chacun se preoccupe de ce qui se passe chez son voisin, un proems en divorce 
 prend 1'importance d'un vnement public. La population se divise en deux camps: 
 celui de la femme et celui du mari et chacun des deux adversaires arrive a 1'audience 
 escorte de ses partisans. Dans les quartiers populeux d'une grande ville, au contraire, 
 un pareil diffe'rend passe completement inapercu et personne se sange, a 1'atelier oft a 
 1'usine, a se proccuper de la situation de famille de ses compagnons de travail." 
 Auguste Rol, L'Evolution du divorce, pp. 467-68. 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM. 11 
 
 sociations of the smaller communities. * * * It is probably the break- 
 ing down of local attachments and the weakening of the restraints and in- 
 hibitions of the primary group under the influence of urban environment, 
 which are largely responsible for the increase of vice and crime in great 
 cities." 1 
 
 (b) In the city the size and mobility of population makes for anonymity 
 of the individual, icho finds in this a greater freedom to do as he pleases. The 
 majority of inhabitants dwell id quarters which they do not own, 2 paying rent 
 to an impersonal landlord, and as a consequence acquire no sentiment of per- 
 sonal attachment for any particular locality as such. Removal to other resi- 
 dence quarters is easily and frequently accomplished, and a large part of the 
 population is constantly on the move. ^ 
 
 This constant shifting of the population prevents the formation of customs 
 and traditions to serve as instruments of social control. Any conduct which 
 might arouse local disapproval need not be inhibited on that account; one may 
 easily go to a community where one is unknown. This is not difficult in the 
 city where a removal of a very few blocks is often sufficient to place one in a 
 neighborhood as entirely new and unrelated to the former one as if it were in 
 fact another city. 
 
 "Another reason (why desertion is less common in Germany than in 
 the United States) is that it is nearly impossible for anybody in Germany 
 to disappear. You have to register with the local authorities whenever you 
 change your residence. Furthermore, every man who is in some way con- 
 nected with the army is bound to notify his regiment of every change of ad- 
 dress. If he neglects this obligation he is punished as a 'deserter' under 
 military law. Very few men like to take this risk. Consequently you can 
 easily trace any man whose military affiliation you know. But men do not 
 like to be traced this way." 3 
 
 Released from the restraint which the intimate and personal relation of 
 
 the smaller community enforces, lost to view in the throng of anonymous, 
 
 unrelated and indifferent human beings which graze his elbows, the individual 
 
 tends to give freer rein to an expression of his desires. Greater freedom is 
 
 p^rded to do as he pleases because there are fewer people to care what he 
 
 . Constant advertising of inviting fields in distant localities is before the 
 
 .n dweller. Easy transportation makes going possible. The suggestion 
 
 depart comes to him in these ways which are not presented to the rural 
 
 inhabitant. 
 
 "Not only transportation and communication, but the segregation of 
 the urban population tends to facilitate the mobility of the individual man. 
 The processes of segregation tend to establish moral distances which make 
 the city a mosaic of little worlds which touch but do not interpenetrate. 
 This makes it possible for individuals to pass quickly from one moral 
 milieu to another and encourages the fascinating but dangerous experi- 
 ment of living at the same time in several different contiguous, perhaps, but 
 widely separated worlds. All this tends to give the city a superficial and 
 
 1. Robert E. Park, "The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of Human Be- 
 havior in the City Environment," American Journal of Sociology, XX (March 1915) 
 593, 595, 607-608. 
 
 2. A comparison of homes owned with homes rented in the five largest cities of 
 the United States, as compared with the rest of the country, is given in the Thirteenth 
 Census of the United States, 1910, I, 1295 and 1313: 
 
 City Homes Owned. Homes Rented. 
 
 New York 11.7 per cent 88.3 per cent 
 
 Chicago 26.2 per cent 73.8 per cent 
 
 Philadelphia 26.6 .per cent 73.4 per cent 
 
 Boston 11.1 per cent 88.9 per cent 
 
 St. Louis 25.0 per cent 75.0 per cent 
 
 United States (at large) .... 45.8 per cent 54.2 per 1 cent 
 
 United States (farm homes) . . 62. S per cent 37.2 per cent 
 
 3. Dr. Alix Westerkamp, letter, Feb. 28, 1916. 
 
12 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 adventitious character; it tends to complicate social relationships and to 
 produce new and divergent individual types. It introduces, at the same 
 time, an element of chance and adventure which adds to the stimulus 
 of city life and gives it for young and fresh nerves a peculiar attractive- 
 ness. The lure of great cities is perhaps a consequence of stimulations 
 which act directly upon the reflexes. As a type of human behavior it may 
 be explained, like the attraction of the flame for the moth, as a sort of 
 tropism. * * * In the long run every individual finds somewhere among 
 the varied manifestations of city life the sort of environment in which he 
 expands and feels at ease; finds, in short, the moral climate in which his 
 peculiar nature obtains the stimulation that brings his innate qualities to 
 full and free expression." 1 
 
 "The force of suggestion depends somewhat on bodily and mental con- 
 dition. Fatigue, disease and 'nerves' lessen the powers of inhibition, while 
 mob-madness [a characteristic of city life] 'leads men captive to the im- 
 pressions of the moment." 2 
 
 As a result, moral standards tend to break down. The wide difference 
 between the environments within and without the city produce different 
 evaluations. Family life, religion, certain ethical codes so completely accepted 
 as to be taken for granted in the smaller community, may fall into utterly 
 different perspective and become of minor importance amid city surroundings 
 where the emphasis is altered. The very things which constitute the ideals 
 of one sphere may become objects of near-contempt in another. 
 
 (c) In the city the economic basis of family unity tends to disappear. 
 
 "The typical family community is one which is held together by a com- 
 mon industry in which each member can partake, according to his strength 
 or capacity; and the industry which most readily lends itself to the co- 
 operation of a number of persons of different age or sex, is farming and the 
 cultivation of the land. In it there is work for all capacities; the weakest 
 can contribute something, the most stupid can give his strength, and the 
 most able can find scope for his skill and organizing power. And so it 
 becomes necessary to carry into industry the principle of family life, that 
 each gives according to his powers and receives according to his needs. 
 Moreover, and this is important for the question before us, this industrial 
 unity of a family means that its members are stronger in combination 
 than they would be apart. A real gain is effected by the assignment of 
 work to those most fitted to do it, and thus there is a genuine economic 
 force to hold the Family together." 3 
 
 "On peut done affirmer que la prosperite de la clase agricole est 
 basee sur 1'union etroite de tous les membres de la famille et que tout 
 evenement qui brise cette intimite porte atteinte au bien-etre de tous." * 
 
 Rarely is this economic unity possible in large cities. Industrialism, which 
 centres in cities, inevitably results in throwing the members of the family 
 group into one of two classes: workers (usually wage-earners), or those 
 economically dependent upon workers. The industrial co-operation of the rural 
 family disappears. The business interest of the working members are di- 
 verse; unless they pool their wages in a common family fund their economic 
 life has nothing of kinship. In the factory and commercial life of the city 
 the workers have been "banded together into groups where the individuals 
 are repetitions of each other instead of being complementary factors." 5 
 
 "Le travail industrial * * * desagrege la famille. II en disperse 
 
 les membres et donne a chacun d'eux des preoccupations differentes et 
 
 1. Robert E. Park, op. cit., p. 608. 
 
 2. E. A. Ross, Social Control, p. 147. 
 
 3. Helen Bosanquet, The Family, pp. 195-96. 
 
 4. Auguste Rol, op. cit., p. 469. 
 
 5. Helen Bosanquet, op. cit., p. 199. 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM. 13 
 
 des interets divers. Le mari, la femme, les enfants travaillent, presque 
 toujours, dans des ateliers differents, le plus souvent pour des industries 
 qui n'ont rein de commun entre elles. Us se retrouvent le soir, et se 
 quittent le lendemain. Us n' ont pas une meme but, ils n' emploient pas 
 leur activite a une meme oeuvre ou plutot, ils n' ont, pas de but, puisqu' ils 
 ne sont point interesses au succes de 1' enterprise a laquelle ils collaborent. 
 Le mari n' est pas le chef d' un groupe de travailleurs unis dans un meme 
 effort, la femme n' est pas, pour lui, une collaboratrice; ils ne sont que 'des 
 associes pour la table et le togement, tout disposes a rompre le contrat qui 
 les le, a la promiere difficulte, et qu' aucun interet important ne retiendre 
 quand leur amour-propre ou leur besoin d' independence serant en jeu." 1 
 
 The destruction of the economic basis of domestic unity makes for 
 family instability. If the woman, either through choice or necessity, leaves 
 the home and becomes a wage-earner the husband's feeling of responsibility 
 for providing for her may be lessened, and he may feel more at liberty to 
 desert her should the impulse come than he otherwise would. The woman 
 in turn, from the very fact of being economically independent, may be led 
 to assert her independence in ways which will in themselves be provocative 
 of household friction. At best she cannot work outside and at the same time 
 keep up an attractive home.- Furthermore, there is no doubt that the en- 
 trance of women into wage-earning occupations before marriage tends to 
 make them unfit for married life when they eventually assume its duties; 
 and this in itself may contribute to domestic unhappiness. On the other hand, 
 if the wife does not earn wages which will contribute to the household budget 
 she will, in the city, be more of an economic burden on the man than she would 
 in the country, because the expense of living is greater there. 
 
 "At one time marriage was, for women, about the only way to a respect- 
 able maintenance, while to men a good housewife was equally an economic 
 necessity. * * * In the towns [now] the economic considerations are 
 mostly opposed to married life. Besides making husband and wife less 
 necessary to each other these changes tend to make women restless." - 
 
 Family arrangements may become less valuable to both because other inter- 
 ests are at hand to detract from the central importance of the home. They as 
 individuals are less dependent upon it. Restaurants and hotels are at hand to 
 accommodate domestic needs; saloons, lodges and clubs of various sorts minis- 
 ter to the interests of sociability; recreation and amusement are more satis- 
 fyingly provided by specialized devices for public entertainment than by the home 
 itself. Even sexual desire does not depend for gratification upon a marital 
 relation. The city vastly increases the opportunity for sexual adventure, and 
 that at a time when the weakening of the domestic ties makes more easy an 
 acquiescence to its allurements. 
 
 As the home gradually yields to outside agencies the right to minister to 
 the various desires of its members desires which formerly it was the home's 
 especial prerogative to satisfy its essential character slowly changes. The 
 tendency is for the home of the city dweller to degenerate into a mere meeting 
 place, to be used at the convenience of those who live at that particular address. 
 
 Not only does the family relation in all of these ways tend to become less 
 necessary: by imposing its compelling demands between the individual and his 
 personal desires it may become to him an unwelcome bondage, an obstacle 
 between himself and things which he values more highly. It throws demands 
 upon his time and purse which he may be selfish enough to resent. 
 
 If not a burden, a family is at least a luxury to the man who is in the 
 city, as is borne out by the general attitude there toward married life. The 
 lower marriage rate, the advanced age at marriage, the shrinkage in the size 
 
 1. Auguste Rol. op. cit., pp. 469-70. 
 
 "It is certain that where the wife abandons the home for outside work or 
 pleasure the bonds which hold the family together become of the slightest." Helen 
 Bosanquet, op. cit., p. 200. 
 
 3. C. H. Cooler, op. cit., pp. 267-GS. 
 
14 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 of families 1 whatever other explanations therefor may be offered, at least tes- 
 tify to the fact that the possession of a family has become a more difficult 
 matter than in the past. 
 
 In the smaller community the opposite of all this is true. Not only can a 
 family be enjoyed at less sacrifice, financial and otherwise, but without a family 
 a man is shut off from many creature comforts. It is essential to the highest 
 satisfaction of his physical needs and without it many social satisfactions are 
 denied. More than this, his fellows expect him to become a family man and he 
 cannot remain a bachelor without disregarding the opinions of his group. Once 
 in possession of a family he cannot voluntarily disassociate himself from it 
 without defying public opinion, for this also is contrary to the mores of his 
 group. Indeed, should domestic friction arise, he is far more like to adjust 
 himself to the disagreeable situation and to "make the best of it" in the country 
 than in the city for the very reason that the suggestion to escape his difficulty 
 by deserting would scarcely reach him in a community where desertion is all but 
 unknown. 
 
 (d) The spirit of discontent characteristic of the city. Mr. Willcox, in his 
 study of the divorce problem, refers to the "spread of discontent" that is mani- 
 festing itself in so many ways. 2 
 
 That a spirit of discontent in general is abroad in the land is not to be 
 doubted. That it is particularly characteristic of the city is likewise obvious. 
 Lawlessness, crime, suicide, industrial conflict, restlessness and dissatisfaction 
 in every field are more pronounced in the confusion of great cities. To the rest- 
 less and discontented spirits of the city-reared, must be added those of the 
 thousands who leave smaller places and seek the city because of dissatisfac- 
 tion with their lot in the less pretentious locality. The dissatisfied go to the 
 city. The places they leave are more quiet because of their departure; the city 
 is more restless because they are added to it. 
 
 Desertion is one of the by-products of the spirit of discontent which is 
 characteristic of the city. 
 
 2 DESERTION MORE FREQUENTLY MANIFESTED IN THE HUSBAND. 
 
 In this connection another point is pertinent: the husband is more fre- 
 quently a deserter than is the wife. It is interesting to note that the Chicago 
 Court of Domestic Relations makes no provision on its official record blanks for 
 the woman as the deserter, but only for the man. "Defendant" versus "Wife" 
 are the headings employed, suggestive of the fact that the defendant is almost 
 invariably the man. 
 
 Of the five thousand charity cases which came under the care of the New 
 York Charity Organization Society for the two years ending September 30, 1908, 
 499 were deserted women and fourteen were deserted men. 3 Of the 591 de- 
 sertion histories submitted to Miss Lilian Brandt as a basis for her study in 
 1905, in only seventeen was the wife found to be the deserter. 4 Of the 1747 
 warrants issued during 1914 by the domestic relations courts of the Boroughs 
 of Manhattan and The Bronx, only sixteen were for women. 5 Of the 9,065 de- 
 
 1. Statistics show that wage-earners generally have fewer children than farmers. 
 "C'est qu'un enfant est, pour eux, tine lourde charge et que 1'incertitude de leur situation 
 ne leur permet mme pas 1'espoir de lui assurer un avenir. A la campagne, au contraire, 
 une enfant est un prgcieux auxiliare. Des les premieres annes de 1'adolescence, il rend 
 des services et collabore a 1'oeuvre commune." Auguste Rol, op cit., p. 468. 
 
 2. "So closely related to the growth of industrialism as hardly to deserve treat- 
 ment as a separate cause, is the spread of a spirit of restless dissatisfaction. Mr. 
 Brice has called this 'the age of discontent.' and this characteristic of the time in this 
 country and Europe manifests itself in a theoretical questioning and criticism of mar- 
 riage, and, perhaps, the weakening of its hold upon the community." The Divorce 
 Problem, p. 70. 
 
 3. E. T. Devine, Misery and Its Causes, p. 210. 
 
 4. Five Hundred and Seventy-four Deserters and Their Families, p. 9. 
 
 5. Annual Report of the City Magistrates' Courts of the City of New York (1st 
 Division), 1914. 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM. 15 
 
 sertion cases handled by the Chicago United Charities from 1909 to 1915 in- 
 clusive, only eleven were cases of deserting women. 1 , 2 
 
 Tradition confines the women to the home. However much a woman may 
 desire to leave her husband, unless the homes of friends or relatives offer her 
 a refuge she will be hard pressed to find a place to go. Because of our con- 
 ventions the eye of suspicion is much more quickly turned upon a homeless 
 woman than upon a homeless man; the latter may go where he likes almost un- 
 questioned. If there are young children she is still more firmly anchored. It is 
 difficult to take them along, and still more difficult to leave them behind. Affec- 
 tion binds her to them. Only rarely is a woman found willing to yield the com- 
 panionship of her children in order to obtain greater freedom for herself. 
 
 Between male arid female on this point seems to be a difference of temper- 
 ment. Where domestic affairs go wrong the woman. is inclined to find relief 
 in tears and upbraidings; the man resorts to profanity and to escape from the 
 scene. Whether this distinction would manifest itself in this way if desertion 
 were as easy for one as for the other, is a question. The fact is that at pres- 
 ent desertion is not equally convenient to both. Social conventions, physical 
 structure, the burden of children and economic dependence are definite bar- 
 riers which tend to hold the wife in the home, however much she may desire 
 her freedom. 
 
 3 DESERTION NOT A RACIAL PHENOMENON. 
 
 Because the domestic relation is so intimate and personal conditions in- 
 evitably arise within it which cause friction and clashes. Since these condi- 
 tions inherent in the very nature of the family and the intimacies which it 
 imposes are common to all people we find desertion to be present to some ex- 
 tent among all races. 3 Undoubtedly desertion will vary in the different regions as 
 conditions for it are favorable or unfavorable; and the racial customs, senti- 
 ments and general attitudes toward the domestic relation will to an extent 
 affect behavior. Observation of the great number of nationalities represented 
 among deserters in our American cities, however, suggest a tendency common 
 to all types of mankind to respond in the same way in the same situation, 
 whatever may have been their inherited racial traditions. 
 
 Miss Brandt's 574 deserters, taken at random from twenty-five cities of 
 fifteen states, showed twenty-two different nationalities. 4 Among the 327 cases 
 studied from the Chicago ' Court of Domestic Relations eighteen nationalities 
 were represented. A similar diversity appears on the records of the domestic 
 relations courts of the Borough of Manhattan and The Bronx, 5 and in the 
 Boston investigation of desertion in 1901. s 
 
 Among 8,957 deserted families aided by the Cook County Agent during the 
 six years from 1909 to 1915 inclusive (except for 1914, for which no report has 
 been published) twenty-nine nationalities were represented. 7 
 
 Dr. Alix Westerkamp, formerly head of the Woman's Legal Aid Society 
 of Frankfort-on-Main, and later General Secretary of the German Association 
 for the Protection of Children, out of a seven years' experience in social work 
 in Germany speaks as follows concerning desertion: 
 
 "Family desertion is not nearly so big a problem in the German 
 
 1. Compiled from the unpublished records of the United Charities of Chicago. 
 
 2. These figures, however, do not necessarily mean that the ratio of desertion is 
 so excessively disproportionate between the sexes. There is more reason, usually, for 
 the wife than for the husband to make known that she has been deserted. The hus- 
 band is commonly the breadwinner. When he deserts, she becomes dependent, and 
 is compelled to seek assistance from a court o" a relief agency. For this reason the 
 man's desertion is more likely to become a matter of record than that of the wife. 
 
 ?,. Vide, Chap, i, Sec. 2. 
 
 4. Op. cit., p. 18. 
 
 5. Op. cit. 
 
 6. Zilpha D. Smith, Deserted Wives and Deserting Husbands, p. 4. 
 
 7. See Table I. page 16. Compiled from the annual reports. 
 
A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 TABLE I. 
 NATIONALITY OR NATIVITY. 
 
 Total No. of 
 
 All Cases 
 
 Aided. 
 
 Jewish 4,239 
 
 Negro 4.080 
 
 Lithuanian 1,491 
 
 Danish i'2 5 
 
 Canadian 749 
 
 Irish 5,562 
 
 American (white) 13,820 
 
 French 260 
 
 Scotch 334 
 
 Hungarian ' 446 
 
 German 7,109 
 
 Russian 302 
 
 Slavonian 965 
 
 Polish 13,693 
 
 Swede 1,584 
 
 Bohemian 3,197 
 
 English 873 
 
 Austrian 832 
 
 Hollander 272 
 
 Norwegian 696 
 
 Italian 6,079 
 
 Belgian* 78 
 
 Finlander* 29 
 
 Roumanian* 26 
 
 Spanish* 1 r, 
 
 Swiss* 89 
 
 Syrian* 38 
 
 Welsh* 46 
 
 Greek* 75 
 
 Total No. of Percent- Rank : 
 Desertion Cases age of No. Deser- 
 Aided. Desertions. tions. 
 
 29 nationalities 
 
 67,213 
 
 903 
 866 
 264 
 
 40 
 128 
 
 590 
 
 2.177 
 
 38 
 
 48 
 
 37 
 
 116 
 
 1,570 
 
 173 
 
 335 
 
 83 
 
 76 
 
 23 
 
 58 
 
 427 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 15 
 
 8,957 
 
 21.3 
 
 21.1 
 
 17.7 
 
 17.7 
 
 17.1 
 
 16.0 
 
 15.7 
 
 14.6 
 
 14.3 
 
 13.0 
 
 12.4 
 
 12.2 
 
 12.0 
 
 11.4 
 
 10.9 
 
 10.4 
 
 9.5 
 
 9.1 
 
 8.4 
 
 8.3 
 
 7.0 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 11 
 1 2 
 1?, 
 14 
 15 
 16 
 17 
 18 
 19 
 20 
 21 
 
 Rank : 
 
 All 
 Cases. 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 21 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 20 
 17 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 18 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 13 
 19 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 * Number of cases aided too small to justify any conclusions as to the ratio of 
 desertion. 
 
 Empire as it is in the United States of America. * * * I remember being 
 perfectly dumfounded when, after coming to this country, by and by I 
 realized the size of the problem in your large cities." * 
 
 In spite of the traditions of the Fatherland more than twelve per cent of the 
 7109 German families relieved by the Cook County Agent during the six years 
 reported, are shown by the above table to have been deserted by their heads. 
 
 Jewish life normally is such as to bind the members of the family closely 
 together. The Hebrew people are traditionally devoted to the family; venera- 
 tion for it has been from time immemorial a part of their religion, and all their 
 racial mores from days of tribal organization until now have conduced to keep 
 inviolate the obligations and ties of family life. We are told by leaders of 
 social work among the Jews that today desertion is uncommon in Hebrew 
 communities of the Old World. Yet among the Jewish people in the United 
 States desertion is at present a problem of no less proportions than among the 
 Gentiles, so far as there are records for comparison. 2 
 
 These facts lead to the conclusion that desertion is not a racial or national 
 characteristic, but an effect of the social situation. Under the influence of 
 American city life, apparently, the restraints of racial tradition are loosened 
 and the family is disintegrated. 
 
 Letter, FH>. 28, 1916. 
 Vide, Tables I and V (b). 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM. 17 
 
 4 DESERTION NOT A PHENOMENON OF RELIGION OR SECT. 
 
 With respect to religious affiliation no sect nor creed is exempt. Jew and 
 Gentile, Protestant and Catholic, Greek and Roman, as well as those who deny 
 every form of religious connection, appear as deserters in the Court of Domestic 
 Relations and in the records of the relief societies. The proportion of Catholics 
 listed as deserters is perhaps higher than it would be if their church permitted 
 divorce, since some men may resort to desertion to secure relief, who would 
 secure divorces if they were not forbidden. 
 
 Only nineteen persons of the 654 involved in the 327 cases taken from the 
 records of the Chicago Court of Domestic Relations failed to report them- 
 selves of some religious affiliation. Possibly many of those who did report 
 themselves as such were not really church communicants but gave as their 
 connection that of their parents. Of these deserters who were members the 
 evidence is that they were only nominally so at best and not a class which 
 their respective churches would like to have considered as typical of their 
 membership. 
 
 TABLE II. 
 
 RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION. 
 
 No. of Women. 
 
 148 
 138 
 31 
 1 
 
 318 
 9 
 
 327 
 
 Protestant 
 
 No. of Mt.-n. 
 153 
 
 Roman Catholic . . 
 
 131 
 
 Jewish 
 
 32 
 
 Greek Catholic 
 
 1 
 
 No church 
 
 2 
 
 Total . 
 
 319 
 
 No record 
 
 8 
 
 Grand Total . 
 
 327 
 
 Xote. In 57 cases husband and wife were of different religious training. In 270 
 cases they were of the same. 
 
 5 DESERTION AS "THE POOR MAN'S DIVORCE." 
 
 Family disintegration is not peculiar to any division of our society. The 
 instability of domestic relations is manifested as often among the rich as 
 among the poor. One has but to turn the pages of a metropolitan daily to 
 discover that no social group or class is exempt. 
 
 Separations may take the form of divorce or of desertion. They differ, 
 however, in an important way: divorce is a legal and authorized separation of 
 man and wife deliberately entered into and officially sanctioned and recorded; 
 desertion is illegal, unauthorized, not officially recorded, and is a spontaneous 
 action. To the former there are three parties: the man, the woman, and the 
 public represented by the court; to the latter there are but two the public is 
 not consulted nor petitioned for consent to the action. 
 
 Of these two forms of conjugal separation, observation leads to the con- 
 clusion that desertion is characteristic of the poorer classes of the city rather 
 than of the wealthier. That is to say, that while disintegration of families is 
 common to all classes, this particular /orm of disintegration tends to occur with 
 disproportionate frequency among classes of the lower economic strata, whereas 
 divorce and legal separation are more commonly resorted to among the upper. 
 
 Observation of deserters shows them to be for the most part, men of 
 humble occupations wage-earners. Of the 327 cases examined from the 
 Chicago Court of Domestic Relations only thirteen men were in business or 
 practicing for themselves. The remaining 314, except one who was living 
 without occupation at his parents' expense, and eight who were unrecorded, 
 were scattered among fifty occupations, ranging from the lowly positions of 
 janitor and bootblack on up to "vaudeville artist"; and over half, as a glance 
 at the accompanying table will show, would be classed as unskilled laborers. 
 
18 
 
 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 TABLE III. 
 
 OCCUPATIONS OF MEN. 
 No. of Men. One man to each of the following : 
 
 Laborer 35 
 
 Teamster 
 
 Clerk and Bookkeeper 
 
 Salesman and Agent 20 
 
 Tailor 13 
 
 Carpenter 
 
 Machinist 10 
 
 Chauffeur 10 
 
 Porter 10 
 
 Street Car Service 
 
 Waiter 7 
 
 Janitor 5 
 
 Printer 5 
 
 Peddler 
 
 Painter 5 
 
 Barber 5 
 
 Switchman 
 
 Bartender 
 
 Baker 
 
 Iron-worker 
 
 Plumber 
 
 Electrician 
 
 Cook 3 
 
 Factory Hand 
 
 Plasterer 3 
 
 Farmer 
 
 Engineer 
 
 Blacksmith 2 
 
 Packer 2 
 
 Butcher 2 
 
 Miscellaneous (stated, see next 
 
 column) 21 
 
 Total known : 266 
 
 Miscellaneous (not stated) .... 52 
 
 No occupation 1 
 
 No record 8 
 
 Grand total . 
 
 Vaudeville Artist 
 
 Express Business 
 
 Hog Driver 
 
 Shoe Repairer 
 
 Wood Worker 
 
 Marble Polisher 
 
 Bootblack 
 
 Railroad Inspector 
 
 Bricklayer 
 
 Boxmaker 
 
 Watchman 
 
 Tinner 
 
 Elevator Operator 
 
 Sailor 
 
 Cigar Maker 
 
 Fireman 
 
 Shipping Clerk 
 
 Dentist 
 
 Furniture Polisher 
 
 Steamfitter 
 
 Sausage Maker 
 
 Total 21 
 
 were steady workers; 49 
 
 Note. Of 127 cases where the distinction was made, 
 were irregular workers. 
 
 The wages of these men are small, such as usually accompany the oc- 
 cupations listed. Of the 284 who were left when the thirty of whom there was 
 no record, and the thirteen who were working for themselves, were deducted, 
 212 were receiving when working less than twenty-five dollars per week; and 
 169 were receiving less than twenty dollars per week. These wages do not 
 Indicate affluence. 
 
 TABLE IV. 
 
 USUAL WAGES OF MAN PER WEEK, WHEN WORKING. 
 Number of men receiving 
 
 Less than $7 per week 1 
 
 $ 7 to $ 8 per week 3 
 
 9 to 11 per week 18 
 
 12 to 14 per week 51 
 
 15 to 19 per week 96 
 
 20 to 24 per week 43 
 
 25 and over per week 
 
 72 
 
 Total known .................................... .................... 284 
 
 In business for themselves, or practicing a profession ........................... 13 
 
 No record .................................................................... 30 
 
 Grand total . 
 
 Note. Of the 72 receiving "25 and over" : 
 3 reported $ 60 per week 
 1 reported 70 per week 
 1 reported 110 per week 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM. 19 
 
 Judge William DeLacy of the Juvenile Court of the District of Columbia, 
 in speaking before the Seventh Maryland Conference of Charities and Correc- 
 tions at Baltimore, gave as his opinion that "desertion and non-support seem 
 to be the poor man's method of enjoying a divorce." Honorable Joseph Z. 
 Uhlir, after thirteen months on the bench of the Chicago Court of Domestic 
 Relations, concurs in Judge DeLacey's opinion: k 
 
 "The Court of Domestic Relations is primarily a court for poor people 
 and immigrants. The rich settle their domestic difficulties elsewhere, either 
 by suit for divorce, or by a separation mutually agreed upon." 1 
 Mr. Percy S. Grant in an article on "Divorce and the Family" speaks even 
 more strongly: 
 
 "Desertion, not divorce, is the recourse of the poor. * * * I have 
 never personally known a divorced person in the working classes. * * * 
 The rules of the game are not understood and observed. They will not go 
 through the forms of legal release when they cannot endure legal ties. 
 They take matters in their own hands and break the rules like children." 2 
 
 As to the probable reasons for this difference: 
 
 If the rich man no longer cares to stay with his family he can afford to 
 employ the law to obtain release (even to the extent of migrating to another 
 state for the purpose if need be) , whereas the poor man cannot. Amicable 
 release may be expedited by his ability to make provision for his family's 
 economic needs, in the form of alimony or voluntary settlement. 
 
 Moreover, the wealthy man finds divorce more convenient than desertion. 
 Economic interests confine him to a specific locality and bind him to a given 
 community. A professional man with a clientele built up after patient labor, 
 or one established in a fixed business, or one occupying a salaried position of 
 trust to which he has attained only after years of climbing, is less mobile than 
 the casual laborer. He is not at liberty to pick up and leave as is a wage- 
 earner, who can carry with him wherever he goes his ability to labor, which 
 is his chief stock-in-trade. Such a one prefers to resort to the courts for a 
 solution of his difficulties rather than to make the sacrifice of business op- 
 portunity and prestige which desertion would necessitate. 
 
 The mores in respect to divorce are changing. In more sophisticated com- 
 munities it is no longer looked upon as a disgrace as it was at one time. Di- 
 vorced persons do not lose caste in the higher social circles; they may gain 
 social importance as a result of the status. In some communities, at least, 
 desertion is not looked upon complacently, and one who deserts may fall in 
 public esteem. Where this is the case additional reason is afforded for pre- 
 ferring divorce as a method of settlement of marital difficulties. 
 
 The poorer classes, as Judge Uhlir indicates, carry their troubles to the 
 divorce court less freely. First of all, the expense is well-nigh prohibitive for 
 the very poor. 3 Second, the prohibition of the Roman Catholic Church is partic- 
 ularly influential among the masses of poor in cities, who, owing largely to 
 European parentage, are predominantly Catholic. Third, there is among these 
 classes, particularly among the immigrants, an ignorance of the procedure 
 necessary to secure divorce, coupled with a suspicion of courts and officers, 
 which keeps them from resorting to the law. 
 
 On the other hand, desertion brings about the desired result just as effec- 
 tively; and its inexpensiveness and the ease with which it may be accomplished 
 under all conditions, recommend , it. Neither does desertion carry with it the 
 finality that characterizes divorce and legal separation. It permits the deserter, 
 should he desire to do so, to return to his family. Finally, among the poorer 
 classes, especially among the immigrant populations of great cities, no social 
 stigma attaches to the man who leaves his family. 
 
 1. Report of the Work of the [Chicago! Court of Domestic Relations, 1913-1914, 
 
 2. Ainslee's Magazine, April, 1902. 
 
 3. Mr. Patrick J. J. McCarthy, Divorce Statistician of Cook County, 111. estimates 
 ifty dollars as the average cost of obtaining a divorce in Chicago. 
 
20 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 6 DESERTION NOT PRIMARILY DUE TO ECONOMIC CONDITIONS. 
 
 Although desertion is more common among the poor, the corollary need 
 not be drawn that poverty is the cause of desertion. This is a very generally 
 accepted opinion, but the facts do not sustain it. Desertion does not appear 
 to be due primarily, at least, to economic conditions. 1 
 
 If desertion depended primarily upon the economic condition of the deserter- 
 it might be expected that the desertion rate would reach its highest point in 
 times of industrial depression or extensive unemployment when poverty is most 
 widespread and acute. As a matter of fact the exact reverse of this condition 
 appears. During the winter of 1914-'15 Chicago, in company with the other cities 
 of the United States, passed through the severest condition of unemployment of 
 more than two decades. The strain upon her public and private charities was 
 the most exacting they have ever experienced. Yet the percentage of applica- 
 tions for relief from deserted families was much less than in normal years. 
 The following table prepared from the annual reports of Chicago's three leading 
 charities for the year will make the point clear: 
 
 Increase in number of all cases aided in 1915 over 1914: 
 
 United Charities 35.00 per cent 
 
 Cook County Agent 39.60 per cent 
 
 Associated Jewish Charities 32.00 per cent 
 
 Decrease in per cent of desertion cases: 
 
 1914 United Charities 10.60 per cent 
 
 Cook County Agent 11.60 per cent 
 
 Associated Jewish Charities 9.33 per cent 
 
 1915 United Charities 8'.09 per cent 
 
 Cook County Agent 9.20 per cent 
 
 Associated Jewish Charities 7.00 per cent 
 
 In 1915 over 1914 United Charities 2.51 per cent 
 
 Cook County Agent 2.40 per cent 
 
 Associated Jewish Charities 2.32 per cent 
 
 Bearing upon this point is the very important statement of Mr. Max 
 Herzberg, President of the United Hebrew Charities of Philadelphia: 
 
 "Poverty enters very little into the question of family desertion. In 
 other words men do not desert their wives because of industrial condi- 
 tions; they very rarely desert them because of lack of unemployment. I 
 have taken the trouble for a number of years to gather some statistics on 
 the question of the causes of desertion, and particularly with reference to 
 the question of desertion in so-called periods of industrial crises; and 
 taking the last five or six years (prior to 1913) as a criterion, and the 
 statistics of the years prior to that will prove the same thing, I find that 
 in 190G seventeen and one-half per cent (17|%) of all the cases that 
 - came to our attention were due to lack of employment or insufficient work, 
 and twelve per cent (12%) were cases of desertion. In 1907, when times 
 were getting worse, the causes of application for relief were, nineteen per 
 cent (19%) for lack of employment, and only nine per cent (9%) were 
 cases of family desertion. In 1908 which was almost the high water mark 
 of the panic, we had forty per cent (40%) of applications due to in- 
 dustrial conditions, and only nine per cent (9%) were due to family 
 "desertion. In 1909 * * * a year in which we all had a hard time to cope 
 with conditions, fifty per cent (50%) of our applications were due to lack 
 of employment, and only six per cent (6%) were due to family desertion. 
 This condition is true not only of the United Hebrew Charities of 
 Philadelphia, but with other and similar organizations all over the country 
 *; and it only proves the assertion that I started with, that desertion 
 is not primarily an economic question." - 
 
 The second point in substantiation of the statement that desertion and 
 
 1. That there is sonic relation between the t\vo is not disputed. Desertion often 
 follows family quarrels, and pinched finances are a fruitful source of domestic alter- 
 cations. The argument here is to the effect that poverty is not the main cause of deser- 
 tion and that there is not any n< rr.s.vrnvy connection between them. 
 
 Philadelphia City Club Bulletin, February 12, 1913, p. 248. 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM. 21 
 
 poverty are not necessarily causally related lies in the fact that many of the 
 deserters studied were at work immediately before their departure. The 
 Boston investigation in 1901 gave the information that 59.6 per cent of the 
 men concerning whom the facts were known were employed at the time of 
 their desertion, 1 and the same was true of nearly half 270 ofMiss Brandt's 
 574 deserters." 
 
 Although the tables of wages for the 327 Chicago Court of Domestic 
 Relations cases indicate them to have been men of modest incomes, 3 it 
 sufficiently demonstrates on the other hand that the economic condition was 
 not the basic determinant. All but seventy-three of the 284 whose earnings 
 were known were receiving fifteen dollars or more per week; seventy-two 
 were receiving twenty-five dollars or more, of whom three were drawing 
 sixty dollars; one, seventy; and one, a hundred and ten dollars. Of 127 
 concerning whom the facts were known, seventy-eight or 61.4 per cent, were 
 steady and regular workers. 4 
 
 The contention that desertion is not inevitably a result of poverty has 
 yet other support. This is the fact that for every man who deserts there 
 are many men just as grievously burdened in every way who do not desert. 
 The records of relief agencies show the number of married couples aided 
 to be far in excess of deserted wivef. 5 Moreover, a careful study of case 
 records of deserted families reveals specific evidence in many of them 
 that there was no need for charity at all until after the desertion had taken 
 place. 
 
 William Bergson 1 "' is a case in point. Poverty did not drive him to desert 
 his family. Besides his wife, with whom he had lived for sixteen years with- 
 out manifesting any tendency to desert, there was no one to support but 
 his little twelve year old daughter. His financial burden was much less than 
 that of any of his neighbors, and he had a much better income with which to 
 meet it, for he owned a prosperous teaming business of his own: a van, a 
 wagon and two carts. But when Bergson came under the influence of "the 
 other woman" he sold his business to the last cartwheel and used the proceeds 
 to finance an elopement with her. 
 
 Neither can poverty be offered as the excuse for Oscar Wilkins. His 
 skill as a tailor insured him regular employment, and recommendations 
 from employers were forthcoming. Good wages were accompanied by a dis- 
 position to save, and his bank book at one time showed a balance of four 
 hundred dollars. Poverty was not pinching at the time of his desertion, for 
 he had two hundred and fifty dollars in the bank at the time. This, however, 
 he thoughtfully withdrew at the time of his departure following a quarrel with 
 his wife, thus protecting himself against immediate privation whatever might 
 be said of her necessity. 
 
 In the light of all the evidence the belief that poverty is a leading cause 
 of desertion appears untenable. The conviction is compelled that the relation 
 between poverty and the essential causes of desertion is a comparatively 
 incidental one. 
 
 1. Zilpha D. Smith, op. 
 
 2. Op. cit., p. 29. 
 
 3. Vide, Table IV. 
 
 4. Vide, Table III. 
 
 5. For example, from the respective records in 1915 we may note the following 
 ratio between the number of married couples and deserted wives : 
 
 Chicago United Charities, S to 1 ; Cook County Agent, S to 1 ; Associated Jewish 
 Charities of Chicago, 7 to 1. Of the five thousand cases analyzed by Dr. Devine In 
 Misery and Its Causes, the ratio is 6 to 1. 
 
 6. Fictitious names are used throughout. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Extent of Desertion. 
 
 1 INCOMPLETENESS OF STATISTICAL DATA ON DESERTION. 
 
 In all parts of the United States marriages and divorces are required 
 to be publicly recorded. In many parts of the country births and deaths, as 
 well, are required by law to be officially registered. Therefore tabulation of 
 statistics with reference to them is a matter of comparative ease. 
 
 With respect to family desertion, however, it is not possible to obtain data 
 with anything like such completeness. Since the law does not require the 
 record it is patent that many cases must remain unknown. Only where 
 redress is sought against the deserter through the courts, or where poverty 
 or misfortune of the neglected family brings it into contact with relief agencies, 
 or in some similar contingency, does desertion become a matter of record. 
 
 Except in occasional instances we have no way of getting information 
 regarding deserted women who, for various reasons, may desire to refrain from 
 making public record of having been forsaken: wives who, because of the 
 disgrace of it are not willing to have their status known; wives who, because 
 of fear of reprisals of the recreant husbands, do not dare to resort to legal 
 means to bring them to task; wives who maintain silence because of preferring 
 their absence to their presence; wives who for very loyalty to the disloyal ab- 
 sent ones shield them by not speaking; wives who would report their cases if 
 they only knew how to go about the perplexing business. How many of these 
 there are and how their numbers might swell the record we have no means of 
 knowing. We can only present fragmentary data at best from such sources 
 as are available, knowing that they do not begin to indicate the full extent 
 to which desertion permeates our modern life. 
 
 2 STATISTICS ON DESERTION. 
 
 The Municipal Court of Chicago for the six years from December 1, 1907, to 
 November 30, 1913, records that of 77,600 misdemeanor cases handled, 8,887 
 or 11.45 per cent, were desertions. 1 
 
 The first annual report of the Divorce Statistician of Cook County, Ills., 
 indicates that of 3,458 divorces granted for the year ending July 1, 1915, 1,045 
 or 30 per cent, were because of the husband's desertion. 2 
 
 The report of the Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and Court of 
 Appeals of Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, (Cleveland), is as follows: 3 
 
 From July 1, 1910, to April 1, 1910, (four years, nine months): 
 
 Total number of divorces granted, all causes 5,425 
 
 Total number of divorces granted because of absence and neglect 
 
 of husband 2,626 
 
 Desertion of husband comprised 48.40 per cent of the total. 
 
 The report of the United States Bureau of the Census for the whole ot 
 the United States is as follows: 4 
 
 From 1887 to 1906 inclusive, (twenty years) : 
 
 Total number of divorces granted, all causes 945,625 
 
 Total number of divorces granted because of desertion of husband. .211,219 
 Desertion of husband comprised 22.3 per cent of the total. 
 
 The conclusion reached by the committee appointed by the National Con- 
 
 1. Seventh Annual Report, p. 132. 
 
 2. From the unpublished records of the Cook County Clerk. 
 
 3. Letter, April 15, 1915. 
 
 4. Special Reports of the United States Censns Office: Marriage and Divorce 
 1867-1906, I, 26. 
 
EXTENT OF DESERTION. 23 
 
 ference of Charities and Correction to investigate the subject of family 
 desertion is startling enough, but the findings of the investigation conducted 
 during the course of this study indicate that the ratio they named is not too 
 large a figure: 
 
 "Detailed investigation in several states has shown that of all families 
 
 under the care of private charity associations, no less than one in ten* owe 
 
 their destitution to this cause [desertion]." 1 
 
 With the object of getting direct information bearing upon this point from 
 the most reliable sources available letters were sent out to seventy of the 
 charity organizations and relief societies affiliated with the National Conference 
 of Charities and Correction in sixty-six of the larger cities in thirty-eight 
 states of the Union, and three cities of Canada. Of the thirty-two responding, 
 seventeen had no provision for recording desertion cases treated under a sep- 
 arate classification; one (Dayton) had had its records destroyed by flood; 
 twelve only were able to send accurate data for the two consecutive years 
 concerning which inquiry was made. The records of the twelve organizations 
 showed: 
 
 For 1913: 
 
 Total number of cases aided 31,090 
 
 Total number of desertion cases 3,124 
 
 Desertions comprised 10 per cent of the total. 
 
 For 1914: 
 
 Total number of cases aided 41,156 
 
 Total number of desertion cases 3,835 
 
 Desertions comprised 9.31 per cent of the total. 
 
 The most complete data available for a considerable period of time is 
 reported by the Department of Poor Relief of Cook County, Ills., (Cook County 
 Agent). The annual reports of this Department for the period from December 
 1, 1902, to November 30, 1915, show the following for the thirteen years: 
 
 Total number of cases aided 123,626 
 
 Total number of desertion cases. 16,134 
 
 Desertions comprised 13.05 per cent of the total. 
 
 The records afforded by the United Charities of Chicago for the period 
 from the reorganization of the society October 1, 1909, to September 30, 1915, 
 are complete and show the following for the six years: 
 
 Total number of cases aided 88,851 
 
 Total number of desertion cases 9,065 
 
 Desertions comprised 10.2 per cent of the total. 
 
 The Associated Charities of Washington have a record on this point 
 from 1896 to 1904 inclusive. Their figures as reported by Mr. Wm. H. 
 Baldwin are as follows for the nine year period: 
 
 Total number of cases aided 22,549 
 
 Total number of desertion cases 1,603 
 
 Desertions comprised 7.1 per cent of the total. - 
 
 The Boston Associated Charities have a record covering five years: 
 
 "In every year between 1889 and 1893, and again in 1899, the new 
 families becoming known to us were classified as to conjugal condition. 
 The percentage of deserted wives continued practically the same, between 
 8.75 and 10 per cent, the average being 9.33 per cent." 3 
 
 Buffalo reports its desertions from 1905 to 1909 to have ranged between 10 
 
 1. "Resolutions on Desertion and Extradition," Proceedings of the National Con- 
 ference of Charities and Correction, 1905, p. 617. 
 
 2. Family Desertion and Xon-support Laws, p. 7. (Published in the volume with 
 Miss Brandt's Five Hundred and Seventy-four Deserters and Their Families.) 
 
 A letter from the Associated Charities of Washington, D. C., date of April 10, 1916, 
 states that the Society is not able to supply desertion statistics subsequent to 1904. 
 
 3. Zilpha D. Smith, op. cit., p. 3. 
 
24 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 and 14 per cent, 1 and Detroit reports its desertion cases for 1909 to be 15 
 per cent of the total.- 
 
 The Charity Organization Society of New York "keeps no record of the 
 types of cases" that -come under its care, 3 but its secretary, Dr. E. T. Devine, 
 in his analysis of five thousand cases of misery coming under the care of the 
 society during the two years ending September 30, 1908, found ten per cent of 
 them due to the desertion of the husband. 4 
 
 The Associated Charities of Dayton, while unable to give exact figures on 
 account of the flood of 1914 having destroyed all resords, was nevertheless 
 able to state definitely that desertions for the year ending September 30, 1914, 
 represented 12 per cent of the total. 5 
 
 The Brooklyn Bureau of Charities writes: "A special study shows this 
 [desertion] to be about one-tenth of all cases." e 
 
 The Charity Organization Society of Indianapolis showed a desertion per- 
 centage of 24.5 in 1914; 7 and Minneapolis was not far behind this record in 
 
 1913, with a mark of 17.2 per cent. 8 
 
 The Associated Charities of Winnipeg, the only one of the leading Canadian 
 organizations to report definitely, found desertion to comprise 11.2 per cent of 
 all its charity cases in 1913. 9 
 
 A close record kept by the Jewish Aid Society of Chicago from 1912 to 191B 
 gave the following for the four year period: 
 
 Total number of cases aided 11,651 
 
 Total number of desertion cases 1,083 
 
 Desertions comprised 9.3 per cent of the total. 
 
 The annual reports of the Federated Jewish Charities of Baltimore for 
 
 1913 show 9.6 per cent of its cases due to desertion; in 1914 this increased 
 to 15.8 per cent. 
 
 The United Hebrew Charities of New York City for the two years ending 
 September 30, 1908, reported 11.6 per cent of all cases to be desertion cases. 10 
 
 The annual report of the Society of Hebrew Charities of Philadelphia for 
 
 1914 records a desertion percentage of 13.1. The Federated Jewish Charities of 
 Boston for the same year report 10 per cent. 11 
 
 Of the twenty-four relief societies in fifteen countries abroad to which 
 inquiries were sent only six returned answers: Berlin, Geneva, Adelaide, 
 Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast. Only three of these were able to give statistics 
 regarding desertion. 
 
 Glasgow, through the Clerk of its Parish Council, reports desertions to 
 have "reached their highest points in 1901 with 11.2 per cent, and in 1903, 
 with 11.4 per cent, since which there has been a steady decrease in the per- 
 centage to 7.1 which has obtained for the past two years, [viz., 1911 and 
 1912]." 12 
 
 The Benevolent and Strangers' Friend Society of Adelaide, Australia, re- 
 ported that of its cases in 1913, 6.8 per cent were desertions; in 1914 it 
 dropped to 3.1 per cent. 13 
 
 The Edinburgh Parish Council reported 14.58 per cent in 1913, and 16.9 
 per cent in 1914, of its new applications as being from deserted wives. 14 
 
 1. M. D. Waldman. "Family Desertion," Proceedings of the Jewish National Con- 
 ference of Charities and Correction, 1910, p. 55. 
 
 2. Ibid. 
 
 3. Letter, February 27, Iftlo. 
 
 4. Misery and Its Causes, p. 210. 
 
 5. Letter. Frln-ua'-y '11. 1!H.~ 
 
 6. Letter, March 4, 1915. 
 
 7. Letter, March 10, 1915. 
 
 8. Letter, February 26, 1915. 
 
 9. Letter, March 3, 1915. 
 
 10. M. D. Waldman, op. cit. t p. 54. 
 
 11. Letter, July 14, 1915. 
 
 11'. Jas. R. Motion, Wife and Family Desertion, p. 4. 
 
 13. Letter, April 8, 1915. 
 
 14. Abstracts of the Accounts of the Parish Council of Ertinbnrc/h 1913 n "9 
 
 1914, p. 32. 
 
EXTENT OF DESERTION. 
 
 25 
 
 TABLE V (a) 
 
 STATISTICS ON DESERTION. 
 Organizations Affiliated with The National Conference of Charities and Correction. 
 
 City. 
 
 Year. 
 
 1. Indianapolis 1914 
 
 _'. Minneapolis 1913 
 
 -3. Detroit* 1909 
 
 4. Chicago 1913 
 
 5. Daytonf 1914 
 
 S. Winnipeg-, Man. 1913 
 
 7. Chicago 1914 
 
 8. Chicago 1912 
 
 9. Chicago 1910 
 
 lew York 1907-'08 
 
 11. Brooklyn 1914 
 
 12. Brooklyn 1913 
 
 Buffalo 1913 
 
 14, Washington | 1901-'02 
 
 la. Boston!! 1889-'93 
 
 16. Washington 1900 
 
 17. Indianapolis 1913 
 
 18. Buffalo 1914 
 
 19. Chicago 1915 
 
 20. New Haven 1913 
 
 i'l. Richmond 1913 
 
 22. Columbus 191? 
 
 23. Washington 1898 
 
 24. Washington 1899" 
 
 25. New Haven 1914 
 
 26. Columbus 1914 
 
 27. Washington 1904 
 
 .ittle Rock 1914 
 
 ?S. Minneapolis 1914 
 
 Richmond 1914 
 
 Washington 1903 
 
 '.',-.. Washington 1897 
 
 33. St. Louis 1913 
 
 .14. Winnipeg, Man. 1914 
 
 35. Spokane 1914 
 
 36. Little Rock 1913 
 
 Spokane 1913 
 
 38. Philadelphia 1913 
 
 S9. St. Louis 1914 
 
 40. Washington 1896 
 
 Total : All 
 Cases Aided. 
 
 2,274 
 
 1,524 
 
 13,017 
 
 785 
 
 16,369 
 
 15,184 
 
 9,582 
 
 5,000 
 
 6,425 
 
 5,237 
 
 666 
 
 4.:, 7 7 
 
 1,848 
 1,393 
 
 913 
 
 22,105 
 
 1,379 
 
 623 
 1,276 
 2,115 
 2,473 
 2,357 
 1,787 
 3,898 
 1,493 
 2,381 
 
 771 
 3,555 
 1,919 
 3,363 
 1,405 
 1,228 
 1,378 
 
 867 
 6,664 
 4,847 
 2,164 
 
 * M. D. Waldman, op. cit. 
 
 t Letter, February 27, 1915. 
 
 | Twenty months only. 
 
 II Zilpha D. Smith, op. cit., p. 3. 
 
 I Canadian Conference of Charities and Correction. 
 
 Total : Percentage 
 
 Desertions, of Desertions. 
 
 559 24.5 
 
 263 17.2 
 
 15.0 
 . 12.4 
 12.0 
 11.2 
 10.6 
 10.5 
 10.1 
 10.0 
 10.0 
 10.0 
 10.0 
 9.3 
 9.3 
 9.2 
 8.4 
 8.1 
 
 1.740 
 
 1,609 
 
 998 
 
 499 
 
 642 
 
 523 
 
 66 
 
 170 
 
 118 
 
 74 
 
 1,790 
 
 110 
 
 49 
 
 90 
 
 160 
 
 182 
 
 166 
 
 125 
 
 266 
 
 102 
 
 15! 
 
 50 
 
 234 
 
 108 
 
 174 
 
 7" 
 
 49 
 
 53 
 
 29 
 
 211 
 
 149 
 
 56 
 
 7.9 
 7.9 
 7.6 
 7.5 
 7.3 
 7.0 
 7.0 
 6.8 
 6.8 
 6.7 
 6.5 
 6.5 
 5.6 
 5.1 
 5.0 
 3.9 
 3.8 
 3.3 
 3.1 
 3.0 
 2.6 
 
26 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 TABLE V (b). 
 
 STATISTICS ON DESERTION. 
 
 Organizations Affiliated with The Jewish National Conference of Charities and Cor- 
 rection. 
 
 Total : All Total : Percentage 
 City Year. Cases Aided. Desertions, of Desertions. 
 
 1. Baltimore 1914 417 66 15.8 
 
 2. Philadelphia 1914 1,114 146 13.1 
 
 3. Philadelphia* 1906 12.0 
 
 4. New Yorkt 1907-'08 11.6 
 
 5. Chicago 1912 2,257 262 11.6 
 
 6. Chicago 1913 2,304 255 11.0 
 
 7. Boston 1914 546 55 10.0 
 
 8. Baltimore 1913 1,934 186 9.6 
 
 9. Chicago 1914 3,056 285 9.3 
 
 10. New York 1913 3,996 366 9.1 
 
 11. Philadelphia* 1907 9.0 
 
 12. Philadelphia* 1908 9.0 
 
 13 St. Louis 1914 369 28 7.5- 
 
 14. New York 1914 4,285 311 7.2 
 
 15. Chicago 1915 4,034 281 7.0 
 
 16. Philadelphia* 1909 6.0 
 
 17 Boston 1913 669 39 5.8 
 
 18. San Francisco 1913 1,754 59 
 
 Philadelphia City Club Bulletin, February 12, 1913, p. 248. 
 tM. D. Waldman, op cit. 
 
 TABLE V (c). 
 
 STATISTICS ON DESERTION. 
 Department of Poor Relief, Cook County, III.* 
 
 Year. 
 1903 
 
 Total : All 
 Cases Aided 
 
 6 058 
 
 Total : 
 Desertions, c 
 
 792 
 
 Percentage 
 )f Desertions. 
 
 13 
 
 1904 
 
 7 650 
 
 959 
 
 12 5 
 
 1905 
 
 7 874 
 
 939 
 
 11 9 
 
 1906 
 
 5 509 
 
 903 
 
 16 4 
 
 1907... 
 
 5 431 
 
 855 
 
 15 7 
 
 1908 
 
 11 714 
 
 1 299 
 
 11 
 
 1909 
 
 9 303 
 
 1 290 
 
 13 8 
 
 1910 
 
 .... 8 191 
 
 1 263 
 
 15 4 
 
 1911 
 
 10 654 
 
 1 566 
 
 14 7 
 
 1912 
 
 12 635 
 
 1 805 
 
 14 3 
 
 1913 
 
 9 487 
 
 1 492 
 
 15 7 
 
 1914| 
 
 11,867 
 
 1 379 
 
 11 6 
 
 1915 
 
 17 253 
 
 1 592 
 
 9 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 123,626 16,134 13.05 
 
 *From the Anmial Reports of the Cook County Agent. 
 
 fAnnual report for 1914 not published. These figures are quoted from the origi 
 nal records. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Social Significance of Desertion 
 
 Desertion, like all other human actions, must be judged in the light of its 
 consequences. No abstract criterion of morality may be called in as a standard 
 by which to appraise it. The results of desertion are of practical consequence 
 to us. In its last analysis desertion must stand approved or condemned 
 solely in the light of the fruit it yields. 
 
 1 EFFECTS UPON THE FAMILY. 
 
 Wherever the subject of human unhappiness is discussed the unfortunate 
 lot of the widow and orphan does not fail of mention. But the lot of the 
 widow and orphan by desertion is often a great deal more difficult and per- 
 plexing than that of those for whose estate death is responsible. Where ade- 
 quate means of support are not at hand the same difficult problem of making 
 a living confronts both. The task is embittered for the deserted wife and 
 mother by the knowledge that the one to whom she has the legal right (but 
 not the power) to turn for support is still alive. 
 
 The wife who secures a divorce frequently has her future living partly 
 guaranteed from alimony or definite financial settlement legally arranged. Pen- 
 sions from various sources are frequently available for the widow. Both of 
 these are denied the woman who is deserted. The former is withheld by the 
 nature of the case, the latter oftentimes by specific enactment or policy of dis- 
 crimination against her. Those who administer mothers' pensions are fearful 
 lest an extension of them to deserted women shall prove an incentive to other 
 husbands to desert. Not infrequently the agencies to which widows may freely 
 and without question turn for support deny aid to deserted women whose need 
 is just as great, on the ground that the husband is still living and should 
 provide for his own. 
 
 In some cases the unhappiness and misery which follows the husband's 
 departure may be reckoned as a part of the just retribution visited upon the 
 wife for her share of the responsibility in causing it; but, if we may take 
 Miss Brandt's conclusions in the matter, this cannot fairly be said in the 
 majority of cases. Of her 574 desertions she says: 
 
 "In 245 cases, almost two-thirds of the 386 for which explanations 
 were available, the chief responsibility for the disruption of the home 
 seems to rest on the recreant husband; in 41 cases, about 12 per cent, it 
 seems to have been chiefly the wife's fault; and in fifty-two, over 13 per 
 cent, man and wife seem to have been equally to blame ,and in the other 
 forty-three, almost 12 per cent, the immediate responsibility lay in circum- 
 stances out of the control of both." 1 
 
 One of the most tragic features of desertion thus appears in the fact that 
 so large a number of those who suffer most are persons who have no part 
 in causing it. Information as to the number of persons involved by desertion 
 is available only here and there: 
 
 According to Miss Smith's report in Boston in 1901: 
 
 228 deserters left 228 wives and 524 children under fourteen years. 2 
 
 According to the committee's report in Philadelphia in 1903: 
 
 208 deserters left 208 wives and 537 children under fourteen years. 3 
 
 According to Miss Brandt's schedules: 
 
 1. Five Hundred and Seventy-four Deserters and their Families, p. 39. 
 
 2. Deserted Wives and Deserting Husbands, p. 7. 
 
 3. Report of the Special Committee on Wife Desertion, p. 2. 
 
28 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 574 deserters left 574 wives and 1,665 children of whom 80.3 per cent were 
 
 under fourteen years of age. 1 
 According to the Stock Yards' United Charities report, October 1, 1910, to 
 
 October 1, 1913: 
 603 deserters left 603 wives and 1,178 children. 2 
 
 In six of the 327 cases from the Chicago Court of Domestic Relations the 
 
 children were grown; of the remainder: 
 321 deserters left 321 wives and 479 children. 
 In 220 of the 1,592 desertion cases aided by the Cook County Agent in 1915 
 
 there were no young children; of the remainder: 
 1,372 deserters left 1,372 wives and 3,631 children under fourteen years. 3 
 
 Out of these 3,306 cases where records are available, 8,014 children were 
 involved, most of them under fourteen years of age. Including the 3,306 wives 
 it appears that a total of 11,320 persons were condemned to all the wretched- 
 ness which follows in the wake of desertion; and apparently most of them may 
 in no sense be considered as reaping a penalty for their sins. 
 
 These 3,306 cases show an average of 2.42 children per family. This is 
 smaller than that of the population at large, as is to be expected in view of 
 the abbreviated term of married life together, but sufficiently large to furnish 
 an urgent argument against indifference to the fact of desertion. 
 
 The Juvenile Protective Association of Cincinnati reports as a result of its 
 investigation for the year ending September 30, 1913, that 2,861 children were 
 deserted during the twelve months, "over twice the total number of pupils 
 attending our largest public school." 4 This number is 5.13 per cent of the 
 entire school attendance reported for Cincinnati by the census of 1910. 
 
 A Demoralization of its Members. 
 
 In some cases outdoor relief is absolutely refused to deserted families, or 
 else granted under conditions which make it virtually a refusal. In such cases 
 the family may be broken up and the disintegration which began with the 
 father's departure be made complete by the scattering of the members who 
 are left. The wholly dependent members of the group, and sometimes all are, 
 may be placed in institutions, because under their altered economic status no 
 means are available for going ahead as a family. 
 
 Even where outdoor relief is provided a host of demoralizing influences 
 are at work among members of the family. 
 
 Physical discomfort is to be expected. Wherever the husband prior to his 
 disappearance has contributed in any degree to his family's support, grudgingly 
 or irregularly though it may have been, a lower standard of living must fol- 
 low withdrawal of his help. This means a lower degree of physical comfort, 
 less to eat, less to keep them warm, and the lessened vitality which would 
 naturally follow. Where the husband has been the sole support it means 
 abject poverty. 
 
 Encouragement to dependency naturally follows. If opportunities for self- 
 support are not forthcoming outside relief must be obtained, and the persons 
 affected become enrolled among the paupers. The statistics already given D 
 indicate the extent which this reaches in the field of outdoor relief. / 
 
 The reports from institutions giving indoor relief are fully as depressing. 
 Mrs. Louis C. Madeira, vice-chairman of the Joint Executive Committee of the 
 Children's Bureau of Philadelphia, estimates 15 per cent to be a "fair propor- 
 tion" of the more than ten thousand children cared for by charity in Phila- 
 
 1. Op. cit., p. 15. 
 
 2. Compile^ from the files, Chicago United Charities. 
 
 3. Annu^f Report, 1915. 
 
 4. "The Desertion Problem," an unpublished report, November 5, 1913. 
 vide, Chap. iii. 
 
SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE. 29 
 
 delphia institutions who are there because of desertion. 1 A. Chevalier, Di- 
 rector of Municipal Assistance, Montreal, finds from figures kept through a 
 series of years, that thirty-six out of every one hundred children in charity 
 institutions of that city are there because they have either deserting or non- 
 supporting fathers. 2 "From January 1, 1912, to January 1, 1913, the Cincinnati 
 Orphan Asylum, out of a total number of 105 children received twenty-nine as 
 a result of the desertion of the father." 3 Twenty-six and one-half per cent 
 of the 1,149 delinquent children and neglected children appearing before the 
 Juvenile Court of Seattle in 1912 "were from homes broken up by desertion 
 and divorce." 4 "Twenty-five per cent of the commitments of children in New 
 York City are attributed to desertion." 5 There are in New York approximately 
 twenty-three thousand dependent children cared for as public charges in private 
 institutions. 1 If Miss Brandt's statement is correct New York must care for 
 some five thousand seven hundred and fifty deserted children in her homes, 
 asylums and industrial schools each year. 
 
 The files of the Juvenile Court of Cook County; Ills., for the eleven years, 
 1904 to 1914 inclusive, show that 21,608 dependent children have appeared 
 before it. From December 1, 1912, to December 1, 1914, a record was kept 
 of the number whose fathers had deserted. Of the 4,403 during those two 
 years, 791 or 18 per cent had been abandoned by their fathers. If the same 
 percentage is atoplied to the eleven years it will appear that 3,889 dependent 
 children of deseVting fathers were taken before the court during that time. 
 
 Encouragemmt to delinquency is but a step from dependency. Not only 
 beggary but thefAand other crimes easily become contributions from the fam- 
 ily to society. Economic necessity may partly account for delinquency. 
 
 "As a rul& the father is better able to provide for the material needs 
 of the childrenVhan the mother, and as a result of this the children are not 
 obliged to attempt to do anything in the way of increasing the household 
 income at a very tender age. Mothers, on the other hand, in order to make 
 both ends meet, are very often compelled to make their children earn a 
 little in the streets and public places, and the children are in consequence, 
 exposed to temptations which bring them within range of the criminal 
 law." ' 
 
 ut economic necessity cannot account for all fc 
 
 "The father, as a rule, has more authority over the children than has 
 the mother. Many of the fatherless children committed [to institutions] 
 are sent there because the mother has lost all control over them. These 
 children are found in the streets begging, or in the presence of criminals 
 and the mother is actually unable to restrain them. The father, on the \ 
 other hand" * * * would be able * * * "to prevent his children/ 
 from associating with evil companions and falling into vagrant habits." 8 
 
 The files of the Juvenile Court of Cook County for the eleven years, 1904 to 
 1914 inclusive, record 26,616 delinquent children as having appeared before it. 
 Of this number, 8.918, more than a third, have been committed to reforma- 
 tories. The intensive studies of delinquent children made by Misses Brecken- 
 ridge and Abbott, (based upon 741 cases taken from this court), show that" 
 eight per ^jn^jyyyjgjjnflnjeafgjy^ by their fathers. 9 Applying 
 
 this ratioMt woula mean that at least 27T ^delinquent deserted children have 
 
 j. Philadelphia City Club Bulletin, February 12, 1913, p. 245. 
 
 2. Proceedings of the Thirteenth Canadian Conference of Charities and Correc- 
 tion, 1912, ] 
 
 3 Juvenile Protective Association, "The Desertion Problem." 
 Annual Report, 1912, p. 9. 
 Lillian Brandt, op. cit., p. 10. 
 
 Department of Public Charities. New York City, letter, June 21, 1916. 
 W. Douglas Morrison, Juvenile Offenders, pp. 139-40. 
 Ibid. 
 The Delinquent Child and the Home, p. 92. 
 
30 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 passed through this court in a little more than a decade; and that more than 
 seven hundred of them were committed for offenses which they might have 
 escaped had their living fathers fulfilled their duties. 
 
 Probably only a negligible proportion of women leading lives of prostitu- 
 tion have been driven thither by reason of having been deserted. Dependable 
 statistics upon this point would be exceedingly difficult to obtain, since they 
 would have to be based upon the unsupported statements of the women them- 
 selves. But the fact that an occasional case is found of a woman, apparently 
 moral up to the time of her husband's departure, entering a life of vice when 
 left alone, shows that this may very properly be considered as one of the results 
 of desertion. The Vice Commission of Chicago regarded deserted women as 
 one of the sources of supply of professional prostitutes. In its report, The 
 Social Evil in Chicago, published in 1911, the Commission made an analysis 
 of thirty cases with reference to the original cause of entering the life, in 
 which two of the thirty were reported as having done so because of having 
 been deserted by faithless- husbands. 1 
 
 A report of an investigation of commercialized prostitution in New York 
 City is made in a publication of the Bureau of Social Hygiene, by Katherine 
 Bement Davis, at that time Superintendent of the New York State Reformatory 
 for Women at Bedford Hills: 
 
 Of 671 prostitutes studied at the Bedford Reformatory, 55 were married women. 
 
 Of the 55, eight (14.5 per cent) gave their husbands' desertion as the reason 
 for entering the life. 2 
 
 Of 492 prostitutes studied at other institutions, 115 were married women. 
 
 Of the 115, twelve (10.4 per cent) gave their husbands' desertion as the reason 
 for entering the life. 3 
 
 Of 1,436 street prostitutes studied, 213 were married women. 
 
 Of the 213, thirty-four (16.0 per cent) gave their husbands' desertion as the 
 reason for entering the life. 4 
 
 "A woman deserted for long periods by her husband is in a very help- 
 less position, especially if she has a family depending upon her, and while 
 a widow is an object of sympathy and of friendly help and guidance, the 
 deserted wife is more often despised and blamed. 'The 'grass widow' as she 
 is generally described, is looked upon as fair game for men of lustful in- 
 clinations, and this accounts for the number leading immoral lives. The 
 desertion itself drives her frequently to intemperance, immorality and 
 i sloth." '" 
 
 Deficient development of children, in addition to delinquency and depend- 
 ency, is almost certain. If the children are too young to appear on the street 
 and encounter its harmful influences, (and they must be young, indeed, for 
 this to be the case), they suffer moral damage where the mother is forced 
 to leave them and go to work, by being deprived of her training. 
 
 "The enforced absence of the mother in the factory or workshop almost 
 entirely deprives the family of the benefits of maternal supervision and 
 maternal affection. The mother sees comparatively little of the children, 
 and is therefore apt to lose some of the self-sacrificing devotion of mother- 
 hood; whilst the children see just as little of the mother and often grow 
 up without the hallowing and constraining influences of maternal love. A 
 life of this kind is full of peril to the young." 
 
 l. Pp. 166, 168. 
 
 1. G. J. Kneolnncl. Cnnmu n iulir.rd Prostitution in Neiv York City, Table XXIII 
 p. 225. 
 
 3. Ibid., Table XL, p. 241. 
 
 4. Ibid., Table XLVIII. p. 249. 
 
 5. Jas. R. Motion, Wife and Family Desertion: an inquirii into its causes, pp. 18-19. 
 
 6. W. Douglas Morrison, op. cit., pp. 139-40. 
 
SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE. 31 
 
 The impoverished condition of the family demands that they shall go to 
 work as soon as an age is reached when they can. Physically under-nourished 
 to start with, they are subjected to all the harmful effects of child labor: 
 weakened constitutions, lowered vitality, absence of recreation, limited educa- 
 tional opportunities both vocational and cultural. They are forced immaturely 
 into the ranks of labor, and unskilled labor at that, and are thereby condemned 
 to a condition of economic, moral, social and physical inferiority from which 
 escape is difficult. 
 
 "The child thrust prematurely into the factory, store, or mine is 
 dwarfed in his moral development. The constant association with adults 
 and the equally constant touch with the practical, bread-and-butter side of 
 life tends to develop prematurely the adult view of life. The youthful 
 wage-earner becomes a man, while, for normal development he should still 
 be a child. The tendency in the home of wage-earning children is toward 
 relaxation of parental discipline. The child wage-earner often loses his 
 respect for parental authority. He feels that his abilitv to earn money 
 places him in a position of independence of parental guidance. The child 
 worker in the plastic adolescent oeriod often hears much foul language 
 and is frequently brought into touch with various immoral influences. Fac- 
 tory conditions are often such that the child worker is in great danger 
 of moral contamination. * * * Child labor often leads to gross immoral- 
 ity. The overworked child early forms the habit of drinking intoxicating 
 liquors. The monotony of his life leads him to seek the forms of amuse- 
 ment which excite and deerrade. Venereal diseases are often unusually 
 prevalent amonsr working children in factory towns." 1 
 
 Lowered ideals of marriage and family life are a natural outcome of 
 desertion. This is an ill effect of desertion which is cumulative. Higher ideals 
 ran hardlv be expected of the children than are found in the parents. They 
 in turn will pass on to their children low ideals of marriage and citizenship, 
 learned in so uncompromising a school: and they to theirs. Children who 
 have witnessed such expressions of marital infelicity in their own homes 
 cannot have a high regard for the union of man and wife when the matter 
 comes personally to them. It is not improbable that they will come to regard 
 marriage as a matter of personal convenience, a transient estate, a bond to 
 be shuffled off if it becomes for them, in turn, a trifle irksome. 
 
 Tlie -una-ncliored luis'band. Great as is the demoralization of the mem- 
 bers of the family left behind, frequentlv the husband himself is the one to 
 suffer the most in demoralizing: effects. His original delinquency of deserting 
 his family gives rise to other forms of delinnuencv. Both purse and time are 
 freed from family demands, however small. Homeless, unattached, his freedom 
 to come and go leads him to saloons and vicious resorts and harmful 
 companionships with their familiar results. His entire income is free to 
 use on himself, and a part of it will be wastefullv if not injuriously em- 
 ployed. He is released from the restraining influence which even an un- 
 nleasant home would in some decree exercise, and so becomes fertile ground 
 for criminal impulses. The part he Dlays as a rolling stone makes for 
 greater instability of character and weakens his ability to resist damaging 
 influences. Whatever may have been the occasion of his desertion the very 
 fart of his yielding to the stimulus has weakened him and made him less 
 able to resist again: at the same time it has placed nim in a position peculi- 
 arly exposed to further opportunities for vice and crime. 
 
 B Relief from the Burden of an Unhappy Family Life. 
 
 Because a statement of its social significance would be incomplete with- 
 out it. the fact must be mentioned that the immediate effects of desertion 
 are sometimes beneficial. To the overworked wife and mother upon whom 
 falls the responsibility of making a living the presence of a shiftless or 
 incompetent husband who is also depending upon her for support may be a 
 burden she would gladly have removed. His is one more mouth to feed, 
 
 1. P. T. Carlton. History and Problems of Organized "Labor, pp. 399-400. 
 
32 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 and his example is a harmful one to the children. Or he may be posi- 
 tively vicious, given to drunken brawls in which he abuses his family. Such 
 a home is better off when he departs, and his return may be the greatest 
 calamity which could befall. When incompatibility of temperament is ex- 
 treme the relief may be mutual. 
 
 This must not be understood as an attempt to justify desertion. There 
 are. as our laws recognize, conditions under which wedded life together be- 
 comes impossible. For such cases provision is made in divorce and legal 
 separation. These, and not desertion, should be employed as the way out. 
 
 2 EFFECTS UPON SOCIETY. 
 A Financial Cost. 
 
 Only a very narrow or a very selfish mind would find in the financial 
 incubus which desertion imposes upon society the largest reason for desiring 
 to eliminate it. Yet we are justified in observing that if there were no 
 other reason than this, the actual money saving to the community resulting 
 from its elimination would be ample reason for trying to do away with it. 
 
 Statistics as to the actual financial burden which attends desertion are 
 still more limited than data as to its extent, but those which are available 
 are significant. 
 
 (a) OUTDOOR RELIEF: 
 
 Only a few charity organization societies have an accounting system 
 which permits an accurate statement of the separate expenditures for de- 
 sertion cases only. In fact, of the seventy societies affiliated with the Na- 
 tional Conference of Charities and Corrections to which separate requests for 
 this information were sent, only three attempted to give it at all accurately. 
 Buffalo found its desertion budget in 1913 to be 6.13 per cent of the whole; 
 in 1914, 8.1 per cent. 1 Columbus, in 1913, expended 6.7 per cent of its 
 funds for desertion; in 1914, 6.1 per cent. 2 Omaha, in 1913, gave 16.2 per 
 cent of the total to desertion; 4.3 per cent in 1914. 3 
 
 New Haven writes: "About one-fourth expended goes to desertion." 4 
 Minneapolis: "Fully 33 per cent of 1914 expenditures were for deserted 
 wives, but this is only a guess." 5 
 
 Spokane writes: "The amount expended for desertion cannot be ac- 
 curately figured but it will bear about the same proportion to the total 
 expenditure as the number of desertion cases to the whole number of cases." 6 
 With the exception of those societies which have a definite policy of dis- 
 crimination against deserted women this might seem a fair generalization 
 to apply to desertion relief as a whole. Mr. Ralph J. Reed, Superintendent 
 of the Stock Yards District of the United Charities of Chicago, points out, 
 however, that this may very easily be an understatement of the amount. 
 Judging by the experience of his own office, deserted families need help for 
 a longer period of time on the average than other cases. Thus, the amount 
 expended for them is by no means less than the percentage which the number 
 of desertions bears to the whole number of cases and is probably more, 
 because longer continued. 7 
 
 More light is thrown upon the question by the reports of the Jewish charity 
 societies, which are frequently more satisfactory in the keeping of records 
 concerning desertion than are the Gentile societies. The United Hebrew 
 Charities of New York in 1914 expended 7.85 per cent of their budget, or 
 
 1. Letter, February 27, 1915. 
 
 2. Letter, March 12, 1915. 
 
 3. Letter, April 20, 1915. 
 
 4. Letter, February 27, 1915. 
 
 5. Letter, February 26, 1915. 
 
 6. Letter, March 16, 1915. 
 
 7. The experience of the Cook County Agent coincides with that of Mr. Reed. 
 During 1915 his office extended aid to 1,592 deserted families for a total of 7 351 
 months, or an average of four months and eighteen days per family. Excluding deser- 
 tion cases, 15,661 other cases were aided for a total of 51,503 months, or an average 
 of three months and eight days per family. In other words, deserted families were 
 
 aided an average of one month and ten days longer than the average of other cases. 
 
 Compiled from records contained in the Annual Report, 1915. 
 
SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE. 33 
 
 $15,829, for desertion relief; and $17,637, or 8.97 per cent in 1913. 1 The 
 United Hebrew Charities of Philadelphia in 1914 expended $4,315, or 11.5 per 
 cent of their budget." The Hebrew Relief Association of the Cleveland Federation 
 of Jewish Charities in 1913 expended $2,015, and in 1914, $2,814 for relief of 
 cases due to desertion. 3 In each case this was 8 per cent of the total expenditure 
 for the year. The Jewish Aid Society of the Chicago Associated Jewish 
 Charities in 1915 gave $28,810, twenty per cent of its total expenditures for 
 the year, for desertion, and $25,645, or 22.98 per cent in 1914. 4 
 
 The last named society through 1913 maintained 61 desertion cases on 
 its pension list at an average cost of $19.06 per month; in 1914, 87 deserted 
 families were kept at an average expense of $14.02 per month; in 1915, 70 
 desertion cases were kept on the pension list at an average of $19.02 per 
 month. 5 When one understands that three years and six months is the aver- 
 age duration of pension cases which this society has on its files at the present 
 time one may begin to appreciate the dimensions which the financial burden 
 on account of desertion assumes in the case of this one agency. 6 
 
 Scattering as these figures are they serve to convey some idea of the heavy 
 price the community pays for the privilege of permitting men at will to un- 
 load the care of undesired families upon its shoulders. But the tale is not 
 complete. We must add to this the expense incurred because of indoor 
 relief. 
 
 (b) INDOOR RELIEF: 
 
 In 1913 a committee appointed to make a study of family desertion in 
 New York City found 
 
 "that fully 20 per cent of the children committed to orphan asylums in 
 New York City were children of deserting fathers, and that the total 
 amount expended by the municipality for their care approximated $700,000 
 per annum. This does not include the money expended by the private 
 orphanages to which commitments were made nor the cost of adminis- 
 tration. Although no definite information could be had a conservative 
 estimate of the amount thus expended is about $300,000, making the total 
 cost to the community for the care of abandoned children about one million 
 dollars annually." 7 
 
 Mrs. Louis C. Madeira estimates that the cost of caring for deserted chil- 
 dren who are cared for in Philadelphia institutions may be placed, conserva- 
 tively, at $300,000 a year: 
 
 "We have been able to gather figures of institutional children to the 
 number of eighteen hundred and ninety-one (1,891). Of these, five hundred 
 and twenty-two (522) were desertion cases. This would mean twenty-seven 
 per cent (27%), but of course if you take all the institutions of Philadel- 
 phia this would not be a true proportion because in the orphanages there 
 is a very small percentage of desertion cases. So for the ten thousand 
 children in institutions in this city, and there are a few over ten thousand 
 (10,000), I think fifteen per cent (15%) would be a fair proportion to charge 
 to desertion cases. If we reckon that these children cost two hundred 
 dollars ($200) per capita for each year, which I think is pretty conservative, 
 it makes the bill which the citizens of Philadelphia are paying for these 
 dependent children, as a result of this one cause of desertion, amount to 
 three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000)." 8 
 
 Cook County, Ills., appropriates $120 a year for each dependent boy and 
 
 1. Annual Reports: 1914, p. 35; 1913, p. 38. 
 
 2. Annual Reports, p. 38. 
 
 3. Annual Reports: 1914, p. 109; 1913, p. 112. 
 
 4. Annual Reports: 1915, p. 48; 1914, p. 54. 
 
 5. Ibid.; also 1913, p. 46. 
 
 6. Ibid., 1915 ; compiled from table on page 49. 
 
 7. Report of the National Desertion Bureau, 1912-1915, p. 3. 
 
 8. Philadelphia City Club Bulletin, February 12, 1913, p. 245. 
 
34 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 $180 for each dependent girl committed to public indoor relief by the Juvenile 
 Court. These are cared for at public expense in sixteen subsidized institutions. 1 
 
 From 1904 to 1914 inclusive the Juvenile Court committed 7,481 boys and 
 5,338 girls to these institutions, 2 for an average period of two to three years' 
 duration, 3 of whom 18 per cent 4 (997 girls and 1,346 boys) were children de- 
 serted by their fathers. The budget for these sixteen institutions in 1914 was 
 $307,558. 10. 6 Setting aside eighteen per cent of this amount we find it to be a 
 bill of $55,360.45 paid in that year alone by the taxpayers of Cook County 
 for the support of other men's children children having living fathers to whom 
 they are entitled to look for support. We have no records sufficiently reliable 
 to quote of what would be added to this amount by private institutions giving 
 free care to deserted women and children. 
 
 Evidently a community must pay dearly for the luxury of desertion. 
 
 The question might naturally arise as to whether it is fair to charge all 
 of these large expenditures to desertion. What proof can be offered that these 
 children would not have been equally dependent had their fathers remained 
 at home? The record of the Chicago Court of Domestic Relations is convincing 
 upon this point: 
 
 "Prior to the organization of the Court of Domestic Relations there 
 was collected for dependent women and children in the city of Chicago an 
 average of not to exceed $12,000 per year. After its organization, when the 
 purposes of the court became well known, many who had heretofore suffered 
 in silence brought their cases to the court, where they obtained relief. 
 Their increases in amounts do not mean that abandonment and dependency 
 are on the increase, but that once an order is entered for support it is com- 
 plied with promptly. Owing to the complete organization of the court for 
 the collection of the support required the following amounts have been col- 
 lected and paid: 
 
 1911 $36,679.00 
 
 1912 74,904.75 
 
 1913 96,537.20" 
 
 Of the grand total of $208,121.15 collected for the three years (to be 
 compared with the maximum of $36,000 for any previous three years), 
 $191,515.03 was for abandoned women and dependent children. 
 
 The foregoing is evidence of what the deserting husband and father can 
 be made to do to relieve those dependent upon him when he feels the hand of 
 the law. We are justified in supposing that the fathers of deserted children 
 
 1. These institutions are the following schools: 
 
 Amanda Smith Industrial 
 
 Bohemian Industrial 
 
 Bohemian Training 
 
 Catherina Casper Industrial 
 
 Chicago Industrial 
 
 Cook County Kinderheim 
 
 Glenwood Manual 
 
 Illinois Technical 
 
 Ketteler Manual 
 
 Lisle Manual 
 
 Lisle Industrial 
 
 Louise Manual 
 
 Park Ridge 
 
 Polish Manual 
 
 St. Hedwig's Industrial 
 
 St. Mary's Training 
 
 2. Records of Cook County Juvenile Court. 
 
 3. Report of the Bureau of Public Welfare of Cook County, May 1 to December 1, 
 1914 (unpublished). The report gives this as an approximation, based on an inten- 
 sive study of 320 cases. 
 
 4. Vide, percentage statement, p. 29. 
 
 5. Comptroller of Cook County, Annual Report, 1914, p. 158. 
 
 6. From a statement prepared by Mrs. Gertrude Howe Britton, for the voters of 
 Chicago, September 30, 1914. 
 
SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE. 35 
 
 who are being supported at public expense in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago 
 and elsewhere, could do as well if it were required of them. 
 
 We are justified in supposing further, that if this $191,515.03 had not been 
 collected and paid to the families that the various charities of Chicago would 
 have been called upon to undertake the care of those who received it, since 
 they would otherwise have been destitute. * 
 
 B Moral Cost. 
 
 Costly as desertion is seen to be the financial tax it lays is as nothing 
 compared with the moral cost, which cannot be measured in financial terms. 
 For every unhappy consequence of desertion which the members of the aban- 
 doned family suffer there is a corresponding one for the community as a whole, 
 and one more far reaching in its effects. 
 
 "Neglected children," said Mr. Wm. H. Baldwin, in speaking before the 
 Rhode Island Conference of Charities and Corrections in 1913, "often take 
 from the community more than would have been required properly to nourish 
 them." 
 
 (a) There are persons who hold that a mark of a city's greatness is the 
 completeness of its provision for the care of its dependents and delinquents, 
 as evidenced in the great benevolent institutions and adequate reformatories. 
 We ought rather, as Lady Drummond of Montreal has pointed out, to regard 
 those as signs of weakness, because they show that we allow conditions to 
 exist that are not physically and morally fit. "The truest test of a city's sense 
 of responsibility is its decreasing need for social institutions and the facility 
 which it offers for the making and keeping of homes." 1 Insofar as desertion 
 throws dependents and delinquents upon the community it increases the need 
 for such institutions and detracts from the city's moral values. 
 
 (b) However unhappy and injured those children may be whom desertion 
 has forced into the ranks of the premature wage-earners, their physically 
 broken and uneducated childhood means a Depleted and incomplete adulthood 
 which will react even more injuriously upoiTsociety as a whole. NoTf humani- 
 tarianism solely, but a consciousness that the group at large is drawing upon 
 its human principal when it sacrifices its children, is responsible for the in- 
 creasing demand for legislation which will safeguard the interests of the child. - 
 
 (c) Already we suffer as a nation in consequence of the disrepute into 
 which certain ideals of family life have fallen. High ideals cannot be expected 
 to come from homes which are themselves disrupted. No period of life is so 
 impressionable as that of childhood, and we may expect that the seeds sown 
 in the child's mind from the degrading conditions which atend desertion will 
 bear fruit and be continued from generation to generation. Lowered ideals, 
 gained from intimate experience with desertion as children, may mean casual 
 and misfit marriages in future with a cumulative toll to be expected of di- 
 vorce, desertion, crime and unhappiness. Low ideals of marriage and citizen- 
 ship lower the quality of the citizens who hold them, and make them less 
 valuable to society. Society, in turn, is weakened to the extent that such 
 citizens enter into its structure. 
 
 (d) Just as a defective sewer taints the surrounding atmosphere will a 
 defective family life taint the moral atmosphere. Where desertion is prevalent 
 there is an attendant lowering of the moral tone of the locality, a tendency 
 toward a general disregard for other social values, such as mark any community 
 
 1. Proceedings of the Canadian Conference of Charities and Correction, 1912, 
 p. 79. 
 
 2. "The life, health, vigor and training of each and every young person is a mat- 
 ter of great importance to the nation. Child labor laws are forms of social insur- 
 ance. If children are overworked and underfed, if they are given inadequate oppor- 
 tunity for healthful play and enjoyment, if children ^.re forced to become wage earners 
 in early youth, the inevitable fruitage will be stuftted, inefficient and apathetic men 
 and women. England is today paying the penalt>/for grinding out young lives in her 
 mines and factories. The warriors who charged with the Light Brigade, or who stopped 
 the hosts of Napoleon at Waterloo, have gone, and their places cannot be filled by the 
 prematurely aged toilers in shop and mine." F. T. Carlton, op. cit., pp. 400-401. 
 
36 A STUDY OP FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 which is in other ways accustomed to disregard principles of law and order. 
 If a "satisfactory" outcome of desertion becomes common it may prove con- 
 tagious and tempt other men to resort to it; it may finally become endemic. 
 
 (e) "The unanchored husband" cannot suffer personal demoralization with- 
 out reacting harmfully upon society. Freedom from home ties illegally gained 
 finds him footloose to swell the ranks of anti-social men. The community 
 must expect no more consideration at his hands than his neglected family has 
 received. It must be prepared to receive additional damages from his law 
 disregarding impulses. 1 
 
 1. Mrs. A. W. Solenberger in her graphic description, One Thousand Homeless 
 Men, has made this clear. Of the one thousand men whom she studied, 258, more than 
 a fourth, were or had been married at the time of her acquaintance with them. "Some 
 wife deserters were among these, but just how many it would be impossible to state, 
 since * * * a number of the men admitted they had 'left' their families, but very 
 few that they had deserted them." P. 228. 
 
 A part of these drifting men, filling our large cities, especially in bad weather 
 and times of unemployment, are, as she says, chronic beggars, vagrants, confirmed wan- 
 derers or tramps, temporary or chronic dependents, parasites, criminals and imposters, 
 hiding themselves among the homeless throngs and lodging houses. 
 
 A conservative estimate places the population of homeless men in Chicago's cheap 
 lodging-house districts at forty thousand. The Health Department of Chicago estimated 
 the number to be not less than sixty thousand during the winter of 1907-'08. Ibid, p. 9. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Desertion Types. 
 
 1ANALYSIS BY TYPES AS A METHOD OF STUDY. 
 
 In a previous chapter an attempt was made to analyze the conditions 
 giving rise to the phenomenon of desertion. At this point it seems logical 
 to continue the analysis by an attempt to differentiate the types of desertion. 
 All are not of one pattern, as one who is brought repeatedly into contact with 
 them soon learns. In this, as in all other lines of research, a classification of 
 the facts discovered is required in order that we may study them more 
 minutely and understand them better. At first it may seem as though every 
 desertion is in a class by itself; but as familiarity grows one begins to note 
 a recurrence of similar characteristics, and at length to find them falling into * 
 definite groups which prove typical. This uniformity makes a classification 
 possible. 1 
 
 The following classification has been attempted on a basis of the nature of 
 the problems presented by the different groups of cases and the fundamental 
 characteristics common to each group. It has been worked out from a study 
 of more than six hundred cases recorded by the Stock Yards' District Office 
 of the Chicago United Charities. It is not claimed that this classification 
 is in any sense final; it would indeed be unfortunate for it to be so regarded. 
 Its purpose has been to point out an important method of study of desertions, 
 in the sincere hope that other and more proficient studies may follow. A final 
 settlement of this perplexing problem will not be possible until there is taken 
 into account the differences as well as the similarities which the phenomena 
 present. 2 
 
 A The Spurious Deserter. 
 
 The "faked" desertion is by no means a stranger to charity workers. It is 
 not a desertion case at all in the proper sense of the word, for it does not 
 grow out of any real intention on the part of the man to abandon his family. 
 It is noted here only because its appearance sometimes creates confusion in 
 court or at relief headquarters owing to the difficulty in distinguishing it 
 from cases which are bona fide. Sometimes stress of circumstance, but more 
 frequently a desire to get something for nothing, induces man and wife to pre- 
 tend a desertion which in fact does not exist. The expenses of childbirth are 
 sometimes met by some philanthropic agency while the father is near by and 
 watchfully awaiting developments. Where fuel and provisions have been pro- 
 vided in time of need instances are familiar of the father and husband coming 
 in to enjoy them under cover of night. 
 
 William Morris and family came to the attention of the society for the 
 first time in June, 1908. Although Morris was a sturdy and able bodied fellow, 
 various streaks of bad fortune made it impossible for him to furnish his fam- 
 ily at all times with the necessities of life. For five years, intermittently, they 
 were fed and clothed by the society. Morris seemed to regard the society 
 as equal to every emergency, and worthy of all confidence. His faith ex- 
 panded as time passed. Attempts to care for the family's needs himself seemed 
 less and less worth while. At length further aid was refused as the only 
 means of placing the responsibility upon Morris, where it belonged. Two 
 days after the agency's ultimatum Mrs. Morris came to the relief office with 
 
 1. The first classification of deserters published in the United States was that of 
 the Special Committee on Wife Desertion, appointed by the Philadelphia Society for 
 Organizing Charity. In the committee's report five types of deserters are given : 
 Chronic, Reclaimable, Spurious, Half-excusable, and Un-get-at-able. Vide, Bulletin of 
 the Philadelphia Society for Organising Charity, January, 1903, pp. 6-14. 
 
 2. The illustrative cases which follow have been taken principally from fami- 
 lies known to the United Charities of Chicago, fictitious names being used. 
 
38 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 an absolutely new tale of woe. Morris, of all men, had deserted and left 
 his unhappy family to starve! However, her unqualified refusal to co-operate 
 in prosecuting him was in itself suspicious. A month later she again refused 
 decisively to take action against him. A visit made about this time, in spite 
 of' the distressing picture conjured up by the story, revealed no distress 
 although aid had been refused all the while. An unexpected visitor still later 
 trapped the careldss Morris within his own house, and he could do nothing 
 but acknowledge the deception. 
 
 This type of "desertion" is one of the most distinctive products of city 
 life. It does not grow out of conditions of domestic friction or unhappy family 
 life. It is a direct product of improperly administered charity, and will dis- 
 appear automatically when relief is organized and given in such a way as to 
 prevent abuse. 
 
 Unwise relief not only encourages the family to persist in this deceitful 
 policy of collusion; it encourages others to take it up, and so augments the very 
 evil it is seeking to relieve. Miss Ella Kahn of the Chicago Jewish Aid So- 
 ciety, after investigation of one hundred cases coming under the care of the 
 organization, says: 
 
 "Proof of collusion was found in ten of the one hundred cases; evidence 
 
 of it in many others, and it exists doubtless in many where evidence is 
 
 lacking." x 
 
 B The Gradual Deserter. 
 
 Desertion is by no means always intentional. Previous separations of p. 
 perfectly legitimate character may wean husband from wife and grow grad- 
 ually almost accidentally into desertion. This form of desertion is most 
 likely to appear when the nature of a man's employment takes him away from 
 home for extended periods. Accordingly we find it most commonly among 
 two groups: the casual laborer, who is driven from place to place in search 
 of work; and the immigrant who seeks to better his fortunes in another 
 country. 
 
 The casual laborer. The modern industrial system, with its increasing 
 efficiency of production, is at the same time a cause of increase in casual 
 employment, growing out of "industrial maladjustments which arbitrarily throw 
 out of work the deserving and undeserving, the efficient and inefficient, the 
 skilled and unskilled." 2 
 
 The result of casual employment is the necessity, more and more apparent, 
 for men to search for work in different parts of the country. Being obliged 
 to travel extensively in order to find it, families must be left behind and long 
 separations must be incurred. Unemployment may lead the bread-winner into 
 distant towns or states in search of occupation. Failure to find it may keep 
 him going further afield. A sense of shame possibly, will restrain him from 
 returning home with empty pockets; or possibly he cannot raise funds to cover 
 the expense of going back. Weeks of separation grow into months; at 
 length he becomes accustomed to being away from his family and finds it 
 no hardship. He is free from responsibility for them at such a distance and 
 they seem less and less necessary to his well-being as time goes on. Probably 
 the absentee has kept only slightly in touch with his family, if at all, by 
 correspondence, for letter writing at best is a task for him, .and there 
 is really nothing much to write except of hard times and of difficulty in 
 getting work. At length trace of him is lost altogether and he may never 
 return at all. Starting out with the best intentions in the world and with 
 the real interest of his family at heart he has gradually come to regard his 
 home as an unimportant detail of his life. Or if he does not actually desert 
 
 1. Paper (unpublished) read before a conference of Chicago Jewish charity 
 tvorkers, February 23, 1914. 
 
 2. Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, p. 169. 
 
DESERTION TYPES. 39 
 
 on the occasion of his first absence or so, a mental preparation for a sub- 
 sequent desertion is afforded by the periods of separation. 1 
 
 Mrs. Kittell ascribes John's desertion very largely to this. Two years ago 
 he went to Colorado and obtained work in a coal mine. She heard from him 
 occasionally. He even sent a little money now and then; not enough to 
 live on by any means, but enough to indicate that he remembered he had a 
 family. During eight months of absence apparently he did not feel any essen- 
 tial lack in his life because of being away from his wife and eight children. 
 But at last he fell sick, and in the rough mining camp where there was no 
 one particularly interested in giving him the attention he needed he began to 
 feel that home had its advantages after all. His own selfish necessity brought 
 him back. In three months he was fully restored and ready for the road 
 again. His family, an asset in the time of his extremity, was a liability 
 now that he was "expected to assist in its support. His prior absence had 
 served to give him a feeling of indifference to famil} 1 cares, and made him 
 more ready to shed responsibility a second time. No economic necessity, 
 such as had taken him to Colorado originally, was the excuse this time, for 
 work was available in Chicago. "He just got drunk and left," said Mrs. Kittell. 
 An unkind letter came from him a few days after his departure; a month 
 later he wrote briefly from Birmingham, Alabama. Since then more than a 
 year and a half have passed and the silence is unbroken. 
 
 Desertions growing thus gradually out of the exigencies of casual labor are 
 numerous. They may be said to be a direct result of conditions of irregular 
 employment characteristic of our large cities, necessitated by the present in- 
 dustrial system. A large part of it will disappear when industrial conditions 
 cease to compel long continued separations between the casual laborer and 
 his family. Society must share with the husband the guilt of a desertion 
 which is due to conditions socially conditioned and not wholly within the con- 
 trol of the family. 
 
 Tlie immigrant. Difficult as it is to deal with the gradual deserter who 
 has gone to another part of the country this particular type presents a 
 still more perplexing problem when he has come from a foreign land. Thou- 
 sands of immigrants of all nationalities come to our shores every year. A con- 
 siderable number of them are not able to bring their families although coming 
 with honorable intentions of sending for them at the first opportunity. Many 
 of them do so; but many others become estranged from the old life and home 
 by the novelty and glitter of the new, and gradually cease to care for their 
 families left behind. "Americanization," in their cases meaning a taste for 
 brighter lights, fancier clothing, more stirring amusements and less confined 
 life, is not long in being acquired. The simple life at home comes to seem 
 slow and dull. Plain, hard-working Francisca or Gretchen in the Old Country 
 cannot compare in style with their modernized counterparts in the cities of 
 America. So the new crowds out the old. 
 
 Michael Peppo was born and reared in a quiet, village community of Italy. 
 He came from a good family, sober, of industrious habits. His uneventful life 
 followed an even tenor and nothing intervened to break into it until his mar- 
 riage to Rafaella. She was very young, only fourteen, whereas he was twenty- 
 four; but in addition to her natural charm for him the fact that she was in 
 trouble appealed to his sympathy. Her father had just been sentenced to 
 twenty-five years in prison for an accidental homicide, and possibly Peppo 
 
 "While certain men [of those who came to the office for aid] admitted having 
 their families, very few would own to having deserted them. They claimed that 
 they had left in order to find work and professed an intention of returning soon. This 
 claim was made even in instances by men who admitted that they had not written to 
 their homes nor heard from them in five years or more, and acknowledged that their 
 wives knew nothing of their whereabouts. Unquestionably a number of these men 
 had, in fact, left their homes with the sole intention of seek'ng work, but having 
 failed to find it, and having in time become tramps and vagrants had felt ashamed 
 to return in their penniless and degraded condition. They continued to wander until 
 ^ven vague intentions of going back 'some day' had left their minds and all responsi- 
 bility for the support of their families had been abandoned. Effort was often made 
 to persuade men of this class to return to their families, but I do not recall an instance 
 in which it was successful." Mrs. Solenberger, One Thousand Homeless Men, p. 23. 
 
40 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 was stirred by a feeling of chivalry at the thought of giving her the pro- 
 tection which her father could no longer afford. When they had been married 
 but a little while the desire seized him to go to America as so many of his 
 fellow-countrymen were doing, and make a real home for himself and his girl 
 bride. That was in 1898. He stayed five years without sending for Rafaella, 
 and without sending a single soldo for her support. But he had not forgotten 
 her entirely, for in 1903 he returned to Italy on a visit. He promised on his 
 departure, less than a year later, that he would send for her soon. Ten years 
 passed this time, with neither passage money nor support forthcoming. All 
 the while the older brothers of Rafaella had kept her from starvation, one of 
 whom had also come to the United States in the meantime. It was a relief 
 all around when, at the end of this decade of waiting Peppo sent word for her 
 to join him in America. However, he thoughtlessly failed to send money 
 on which to come, and it was by hard scraping that Rafaella was able to get 
 enough personal effects together to sell for the price of a steerage ticket to 
 New York and the cheapest available transportation to Pennsylvania, where 
 her husband was at work. After fifteen years of waiting, and by paying her 
 own way across, Rafaella knew at last what it was to have at hand a husband, 
 and a father for her children. There were two bambinos now; one had been 
 born shortly after each of Peppo's two trips to America. But her pleasure in 
 having him was not to last. So many years of freedom from domestic respon- 
 sibilities made family cares irksome, so Peppo moved on again, this time to 
 Chicago, leaving a good job to do so. On money furnished by her brother 
 Rafaella followed, but Peppo had news of her coming before she arrived and 
 fled again, sending word that he would never again live with her. 
 
 In the United Kingdom desertion through emigration reached such startling 
 proportions that in 1911 a resolution was adopted by the Imperial Conference 
 expressed in the following terms: 
 
 "That in order to secure justice and protection of the wives and children 
 who have been deserted by their legal guardians either in the United 
 Kingdom or any of the Dominions, reciprocal legal provisions should be 
 adopted in the constituent parts of the Empire in the interests of such 
 destitute and deserted persons." 1 
 
 In Glasgow alone, for the year ending May 15, 1912, 340 cases of "co- 
 lonial" desertion were recorded, all of which were accomplished as emigra- 
 tions. In 124 of the cases investigation showed that the wives had knowledge 
 beforehand of the proposed emigrations which subsequently became desertions. 2 
 
 Mr. Hugo E. Varga has pointed out the three courses, one of which the 
 immigrant is apt to adopt after absence from his family has grown into a 
 definite desertion. 3 
 
 i. He may live in adultery with another woman. 
 
 ii. He may institute divorce proceedings against the wife in Europe; 
 and owing to our lax divorce laws which lend him aid he is usually 
 successful in securing it, for at present we have no adequate way of guard- 
 ing against injustices which may arise in such case from uncontested suits 
 for divorce. A totally unsuspecting wife across the sea waiting patiently 
 and trustfully for summons to join her husband, may easily be divorced 
 without her knowledge. 
 
 iii. Sometimes illegal marriage is effected in the United States with- 
 out going to the trouble of getting a divorce from the wife abroad. In 
 addition to leaving a destitute family across the ocean this act of bigamy, 
 if uncovered, may result in a great deal of legal complexity because of the 
 two sets of wives and children. When, as sometimes happens, the aban- 
 doned family appeals to the American minister or consul where they are, an 
 international complication may arise. 
 
 1. Quoted by Jas. R. Motion, Wife and Family Desertion: Emigration as a 
 Contributory Cause, p. .,. 
 
 2. Ibid. 
 
 3. "Desertion of Wives and Children by Emigrants to America," Proceedings of 
 the National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1912, p. 257. / 
 
DESERTION TYPES. 41 
 
 We in America are guilty of contributory negligence insofar as we permit 
 such things as these to take place with impunity. We have ourselves added 
 to the burdens of a society across the sea. 
 
 Upon our own society there is a vicious moral effect. Not merely the 
 hardship and suffering which is brought in this way to numbers of wives and 
 children is a result; the low standard of morals which our indifference en- 
 courages reacts most harmfully upon our own American communities. Crime 
 of various sorts fraud, bigamy, adultery, perjury are fostered; and our neg- 
 ligence in allowing them to be overlooked may engender a general disregard 
 for the law among those who profit by our carelessness. Moreover, the country 
 is robbed of a healthy domestic life to the extent which such offenses as 
 Mr. Varga has outlined may deprive it of the beneficial presence of families 
 belonging to immigrants. Because of the international phases of the problem 
 presented it is difficult at present to bring these offenders to justice, and legal 
 administration is burdened accordingly. 
 
 Here, again, in the immigrant and "colonial" deserter we have a condi- 
 tion where family disintegration is directly traceable to industrial and social 
 conditions which are fostered by the restless life of cities. If the immigrant 
 were to bring his family with him, and especially if he were to settle outside 
 of cities where his wife would be not merely a comfort but an economic asset 
 as well, probably the family relation would remain intact. 1 
 
 The problem of the gradual deserter, both of the casual laborer and of the 
 immigrant, seems to be one of keeping husband and family together. Dissat- 
 isfaction with each other is not the original cause; the factors responsible at 
 first are the objective circumstances which compel them to live apart, and so 
 afford an opportunity for indifference and unpremeditated neglect to widen 
 the chasm into complete separation of life. The underlying remedy for this 
 type of desertion is a change of conditions so that they may keep together. 
 
 C The "Intermittent Husband." 
 
 The descriptive expression, "intermittent husband," has been employed 
 by charity workers to characterize a type of deserter who, of all others, is 
 most trying to the soul. By no means all men who deliberately abandon fam- 
 ilies plan to make the separation permanent. A lasting- separation from the 
 family is as undesirable to them in many cases as a permanent residence with 
 the family would be. The home is the port from which the ship may sally forth \ 
 when affairs are dull or unpleasant on shore; it is a haven to which the vessel/ 
 may return when weary of buffetings at sea. They may slip their moorings] 
 in the stress of anger with the express intention of never coming back, but as/ 
 anger lessens and absence palls the intention fades. 
 
 (a) THE PERIODIC DESERTER. 
 
 Not quite with the degree of predictability characterizing the solstices 
 and equinoxes, but with something approaching it, is the periodic deserter 
 who may be counted on to depart at stated intervals or upon certain occasions. 
 
 Certain seasons of the year, according to reports from the relief offices, 
 seem more likely to produce desertion than others. The first chill of winter 
 is the signal for many desertions each year. Husbands leave for a more 
 favorable climate and to avoid the additional economic strain which cold 
 weather brings. With others the effect is just the reverse; cold weather drives 
 them into the shelter of the home which was neglected when weather was fine. 
 Consequently the opening up of early summer will recall some deserters to as- 
 sume the family relationship, because the season makes the obligation less 
 arduous; others, arousing from their hibernation in the sheltered domestic fold, 
 fare forth again in pleasant weather. 
 
 Mrs. Stanley reports that for the past four years Stanley has abandoned 
 
 1. "Personally, as a preventive measure, I am of the opinion that the emigra- 
 tion of- married men without their wives should be discouraged as much as possible, 
 have seen how, when once they get abroad, so many of them give way to intem- 
 perance and vicious excesses solely because they are out of reach of home and family 
 Influences." Jas. R. Motion, op. cit., p. 14. 
 
42 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 her each summer, but has not failed to return with fall "to sit by the fire all 
 winter," apparently under the impression that if he can manage to support 
 himself without expense to her half the year she ought not complain about 
 providing for him for the other half. 
 
 Inhuman as it is, many men may confidently be relied upon to desert 
 on each occasion of their wives' confinement, unable or unwilling to face the 
 problem of financing the additional expense. 
 
 Mrs. Carrothers can testify to the unhappiness of such a situation. Not 
 once, but three times, she has experienced the unnatural negligence. She is by 
 no means an ideal housewife, her home is not one which a husband could 
 feel proud to exhibit, and she is herself a sloven; but these faults have not 
 been the ones which Carrothers found intolerable. In fact he had never 
 known anything else before he married her. The back-breaking straws have 
 been the three occasions, in 1910, 1912 and 1914, when Catherine, Anna and 
 George came into the world. During his periods of absence the grandparents 
 of the new arrivals have come to the rescue and in a poor way have helped 
 tide over till the father's return. 
 
 An extreme case of this is the one reported by Miss Zilpha D. Smith, 1 of 
 the woman who bore nine children, of whom seven had died. The husband 
 had deserted before the birth and burial of each. 
 
 (b) THE TEMPERAMENTAL DESERTER. 
 
 The temperamental deserter is not quite so regular in his habits of de- 
 sertion as is the periodic deserter. One may safely predict that his unan- 
 nounced departure is only a matter of time, but of how long a time cannot 
 be accurately foretold. This individual may be easily thrown out of domestic 
 gear by a quarrel or spree and give vent to his feelings by taking himself 
 off. Or a fit of wanderlust or discouragement may give the immediate im- 
 pulse for departure. Other men who do not desert are, of course, subject to 
 the same vicissitudes, but some way their reaction takes another shape. 
 
 Ben Allen is one of these impulsive deserters, his artistic temperament 
 taking the particular form of expression of "beating up" his family. Four 
 times he deserted before the present occasion, each time leaving physical marks 
 of his displeasure as a souvenir of his going upon Lottie and whichever 
 of his five children happened to be within range at the time. Four times, 
 after intervals of several weeks each during which his temper has somewhat 
 cooled, he has returned. 
 
 Miss Brandt's description of the "typical" deserter fits with especial apt- 
 ness the temperamental type: 
 
 "The typical deserter is not a figure to excite admiration, nor even 
 much interest. He is young, able-bodied, more or less dissipated, capable 
 of earning good wages but rarely in a mood for making the exertion, and, 
 above all, he is lacking in the quality which makes an obligation to others 
 outweigh considerations of personal comfort or preference. This combina- 
 tion of characteristics makes him susceptible to attractions of various 
 sorts; it incapacitates him for dealing in a philanthropic spirit with the 
 elements of discord which exist in every household; and it prevents him 
 from resisting with even an average will the restlessness that is apt to 
 call everyone at times away from the ordinary prose of life. He may be, 
 withal, though he is not always, of a personal attractiveness 'that makes 
 him a coveted comrade and gives him an advantage with women." 2 
 
 Miss Brandt's picture is a life sized portrait of Joe Fenton. A more 
 worthless, irresponsible scamp than he scarcely lived. That his marriage laid 
 him under obligation to look after Katie's needs apparently never dawned 
 on his consciousness. He worked a little now and then when he felt like it, 
 but in the main the burden of providing for the household was left to his 
 
 1. Op. cit., p. 4. 
 
 2. Op. cit., p. 63. 
 
DESERTION TYPES. 43 
 
 more competent wife. Joe's sole redeeming traits were his good nature and 
 genuine affection for his family. These served to keep peace in the house- 
 hold; and Katie, for all his faults, gave him a cordial welcome when he 
 was about the house. Two or three times after marriage he had been seized 
 with a wanderlust and had gone off for vacations of a week or so, coming 
 back just when Katie thought he had gone for good. More than a year had 
 passed, however, since his previous desertion, and she had begun to hope 
 that he was cured. But it proved not to be so. During a more protracted 
 period of loafing than usual Joe got himself arrested in March of 1915 and sent 
 to the Bridewell for ten days to work out a fine for disorderly conduct. He 
 was released to find his wife and baby living on aid from the United Charities 
 and the landlord threatening eviction. At such a discouraged moment as this 
 Joe's dark inward reflections were illumined by a letter from his happy-go-lucky 
 brother : 
 
 Fort Morgan Colo 4-18-15 
 Dear Brother Joe. 
 
 I have decided to trop you a feiw lines and hope you are well and 
 your family also. I have heart of your troubles but could not helpet. I 
 have left Chi. and went tru Ky. Ind. N. Y. Pa. N. Jerrsey and bak. Mich. 
 Ohio. 111. Wisconsin Minnesota Iway Mo. Kansas Nebr Colo and I have not 
 done any work since I left I am hapy on the road and it is very fine, 
 I feel like I never will work again onless I have seen all U. S. I am 
 on my way to Californ but I take my time. I ant in horry, you have been 
 traveling, but you have not seen anything yet and you have no experience 
 about Ho Bo life a tall, gee it is fine to be on the Road. It is 10 weeks 
 since I have no home but a Box Car. If you go on the Road again look 
 for my Monogram in the Cars. 
 
 RAILROAD JACK. 
 
 I will not work very much this Sumer only to bull tru the Coast. 
 It is blenty of work around here, but I dond feel like working yet. I 
 wisht you vas not mareyt and could be with me. I bet you would engoeyet. 
 I hav enofh to eet and a diferent place to sleep every night and feel healty. 
 Wen I stop in some place a week or two, I will write you and wait for a 
 answear. How is my friend Sipsey? If tere had been 3700$ insteaet 37$ 
 that did not help me any. I was broke the secont week. I am going to 
 see the exposition in California and then I am going North East from 
 tere. This is Sunday the Stores are closed so I could not buy writing paper. 
 I have seen all, the big Citiys in the states I have been in it. I will be in 
 Denver tomorrow, tell Steve Wagner it was me talking over the phone 
 wen you was in Jaill. I will write you great news the next time. Give 
 my Regwards to all and be well. Your Brother 
 
 St. 
 4-18-145-W RAILROAD JACK 1 
 
 This letter, discovered by his forlorn wife a day or so after he had departed 
 for regions unknown, told the story. With complete disregard for the unhappi- 
 ness of his little family, and thinking only of how the times were out of joint 
 with himself, he had seized eagerly at the attractive outing suggested by 
 "Railroad Jack" and had gone his way. Whether he carried out his brother's 
 plan of "bulling tru the Coast," and visiting all the "big Citiys" en route, we 
 have no means of knowing; his wife has not heard from him since. 2 
 
 1. Original letter on file in the office of the Stock Yards District of the Chicago 
 United Charities. 
 
 "The periodical wanderers * * * when the wanderlust attracts them will 
 go on a 'spree' of tramping, not dissimilar in many respects from those of periodic 
 drinkers ; for while the lust to wander is upon them, families are neglected, savings 
 are spent and all responsibility is thrown to the winds. Among the families we came 
 in touch with in the district office [Central District, Chicago United Charities] there 
 were a number in which the man was a periodic deserter, and several of these men 
 admitted, when questioned, that they 'took to the road awhile' whenever they abandoned 
 their families. One man, a very fine worker, and, when at home, a kind husband and 
 father, deserted his family at regular intervals just six years apart. His wife was 
 forced to apply to the Bureau for aid during his third absence from home, because 
 continuous illness had exhausted the savings her husband had left her which he had 
 supposed would carry the family through till his return. This man came to the office 
 later and paid the money we had advanced to his wife. He spoke shamefacedly of his 
 wanderings, but said that when the attacks came it was useless for him to try to fight 
 them. He simply 'had to go.' " Mrs. Solenberger. op cit., pp. 121-22. 
 
44 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 In some cases the separation may finally become permanent through tho 
 unwillingness of the wife to be reconciled. On the books of the Cook County 
 Agent is the record of Mrs. Haynes. Ten times Haynes deserted, leaving her 
 each time with no recourse but charity; ten times, when the mood was upon 
 him, he returned as if nothing had happened and resumed the broken thread 
 of residence at home, and found his wife receptive. The eleventh time the 
 worm turned. Mrs. Haynes, her resolution fortified by the urgent advice of 
 those who had helped her the most, steadily refuses to allow him to return. 
 
 In the words of the Philadelphia Committee on Wife Desertion: "After 
 a man has deserted once the habit seems easy to form." Especially is thin 
 true where the man returns to find that his family has been comfortably 
 cared for during his absence. Relief societies may well look to it to see 
 that unwise charity does not turn the first-time deserter into a chronic or 
 habitual deserter. In 87 per cent of the cases studied by the Philadelphia 
 committee, where information was recorded, the husband had deserted more 
 than once. 1 
 
 Miss Smith found in her Boston investigation that 
 
 "out of 187 cases where the number of desertions was known, 107 had 
 deserted but once, 34 had deserted twice, nine had deserted three times, 
 21 had deserted 'several' times, nine had deserted 'many' times, one had 
 deserted four times, three had deserted five times, one had deserted six 
 times, two had deserted seven times." - 
 
 Miss Brandt's investigation gave the following on this point: 
 
 "Eighty-four of the men were known to have deserted once before the 
 present occasion; 38, twice before; 112, three times or more, of whom 74 
 had left 'many' times, or 'repeatedly.' If the 122 who had deserted once or 
 twice before be considered on the road to the last class it would appear 
 that 234 altogether, about forty per cent of all, belong to the class of 
 chronic deserters." 3 
 
 Of the 327 cases taken from the Chicago Court of Domestic Relations' 
 files, 218 had no record on this point, two were specifically recorded as having 
 had no previous desertion, and 107 or 33 per cent, were known to have deserted 
 at least once before; how many others may have done so we do not know. 
 The absence of information concerning two-thirds of the entire number makes 
 it impossible to know what proportion of them may be called habitual de- 
 serters; but for fifty-one of them this was at least the third offense, in a fair 
 way to be called a habit. 
 
 TABLE VI. 
 
 PREVIOUS DESERTIONS. 
 
 No. of Men. 
 
 1 previous desertion known 56 
 
 2 previous desertions known 17 
 
 3 previous desertions known 9 
 
 4 previous desertions known 5 
 
 5 previous desertions known 6 
 
 7 previous desertions known u 
 
 9 previous desertions known 2 
 
 "Several" previous desertions known 10 
 
 Total 107 
 
 No previous desertion -. 2 
 
 No record 218 
 
 Grand Total 
 
 1. Bulletin of the Philadelphia Society for Organizing Charity, January, 1903, 
 p. 6. 
 
 2. Op. cit., p. 4. 
 
 3. Op. cit., p. 13 
 
DESERTION TYPES. 45 
 
 The element common to the type described as the "intermittent hus- 
 band" is an excessive lack of a sense of responsibility. A superlative sel- 
 fishness refuses to take the needs of the wife and the home into considera- 
 tion when personal comfort or desire suggests departure. As we have seen, 
 this type of deserter does not necessarily require that his family shall have 
 offended him in some way, to provide a justification for his conduct. It is 
 enough that an outside attraction shall present itself. Furthermore, he is not 
 a man who wants a divorce or legal separation. He wants to be free to come 
 back when it suits him, and he would be the last to welcome a divorce court 
 as a solution of his affairs. 
 
 The specific problem presented by this type is one of 'discipline. The 
 husband must be made to see that a family is something more than a mere 
 convenience, to be cared for or neglected at will. The full weight of public 
 disapproval, expressed in the law and executed by the court, must be thrown 
 into the balance against him that he may know his obligations and be com- 
 pelled to live up to them. 
 
 D The Ill-advised Marriage Type. 
 
 A superficial inquiry into the divorce courts of any part of the country 
 is enough to convince one that there are many thousands of marriages which 
 might better never have been contracted. Low ideals of marriage, lack of train- 
 ing for its responsibilities, too brief acquaintance, hasty or unconsidered mar- 
 riage, diseased or unfit physical condition: these are some of the things which 
 may lead naturally to an early desire to be freed from the bond. The records 
 of hearings before divorce courts are sordid testimony to the lack of healthy 
 ideals concerning marriage in multitudes of men and women who have entered 
 into it. 
 
 The records of the Federal Census Bureau upon this point are to the 
 effect that practically one-third (32.1 per cent) of the divorces granted through- 
 out the country between 1887 and 1906 were to couples who had been married 
 five years or less. Twelve and one-tenth per cent were to couples who had 
 been married two years or less. 1 
 
 The point of the foregoing is that marriages which are entered into ill- 
 advisedly will often manifest the fact in early estrangement. This is reflected 
 by the divorce statistics. 
 
 In the same way the extent of ill-advised marriages is reflected so far 
 as our records go in a high rate of desertions during the early years of 
 married life. Miss Brandt found that 45.97 per cent of her deserters have 
 been married five years or less at the time of their first desertion; 22.48 per 
 cent, two years or less; 13.42 per cent one year or less. 2 
 
 That there are many persons seeking a way out of marriage so soon after 
 it has taken place is not surprising when one observes on every hand the 
 deplorable ease with which marriage may be contracted in this country between 
 irresponsible persons, and the carelessness and thoughtlessness with which the 
 union is entered by those capable of careful and intelligent consideration. 
 The following news item, appearing in the Chicago American under date of 
 August 18, 1915, is illustrative of the lightness with which marriage is popularly 
 regarded: 
 
 1. O)). cit., I. 36. The following statement is made: 
 
 "The low number in the first year or two is to be attributed in part at least to the 
 fact that the routine court procedure for obtaining a divorce requires some time, and 
 that desertion, the leading cause, must in many jurisdictions have been of considerable 
 duration before it becomes a legal ground." Ibid, I, 38. 
 
 Records compiled by Robert M. Sweitzer, Clerk of Cook County, Illinois, from 
 3,860 divorce cases heard between January 1 and July 1, 1914, show that the largest 
 percentage of petitions for relief in any single year of married life 18 per cent. 
 comes within the first twelve months of marriage. 
 
 Op. cit.. p. 2H. 
 
46 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 JUST FURNISH GIRL 
 CEREMONY IS FREE 
 
 Anybody want to take a chance on a free marriage ceremony, free 
 license included? The Commercial Club of St. Charles offers to "supply 
 everything." 
 
 There is to be a celebration of "St. Charles' Day" at Pottawatomie 
 Park tomorrow and the committee in charge of the "country store" have 
 issued a call for couples "to get married right on the grounds." 
 
 "An inducement of sufficient size will be offered to any couple," says 
 the committee. 
 
 The hasty marriage. Mildred Hunter was graduated from Clarksville High 
 School with high honors in a class of two score. She was a belle in the little 
 city of ten thousand where she had lived all her life, and no social activities 
 of the place of any importance were complete without her participation. 
 "Love at first sight" was the diagnosis when she encountered Johnston Free- 
 man, a fascinating- transient from St. Louis, on a moonlight hayride the summer 
 following her graduation. Their engagement after the single evening's ac- 
 quaintance was the result. An elopement and marriage the third day there- 
 after indicated the swift progress of the romance; and the culmination as well, 
 for in less than three months Freeman's desertion followed, a solution wel- 
 comed by all concerned. 
 
 The marriage of convenience. The desire to free herself from the neces- 
 sity of self-support, Mrs. Lamb frankly admits, was the reason of her marriage 
 to Lamb. At sixteen years she was compelled to leave the farm in order 
 to earn her own living by "working out." A position was secured for her 
 in a hotel in Hammond, Indiana. The landlady of the hotel was responsible 
 for the match, arranging for her to meet Lamb, who was one of the boarders, 
 "because he was a butcher getting four dollars a day." This was the first 
 courtship the unsophisticated country girl had ever had and a scant fortnight's 
 acquaintance found them man and wife. Today Lamb is living with another 
 woman. Mrs. Lamb is supporting herself by taking in washing, which she 
 does in her cramped quarters of two rooms off Halsted street. 
 
 The forced marriage. Jacob McDaniel and Mary Murphy were reared in 
 the uninspiring atmosphere "back of the Yards," and grew up in a community 
 not conducive to highest morals. In fact, the fathers of both were drinking 
 men, and Jacob's father, especially, had the reputation of being unkind to his 
 wife. The couple had been neighbors and school mates from infancy but 
 were in no sense betrothed at the time Jacob became engaged to another girl 
 who had moved into the community. Before the day set for their wedding, 
 however, Mary's mother discovered that her daughter was pregnant and that 
 Jacob was the one responsible for her condition. Pressure was brought to 
 bear, and five days before her baby was born Mary Murphy became Mary 
 McDaniel. Aside from the gloomy satisfaction of giving the child a name 
 the marriage was a farce, for Jacob never pretended to make a home for his 
 wife and baby. He continued his attentions to the other girl, who was re- 
 ceptive. Eventually they eloped, going to a large city of the middle west 
 where they lived as man and wife. 
 
 Forced marriages, loveless, and consummated for the sole purpose of 
 legitimizing the child, are almost foredoomed to failure. 
 
 If man and wife find themselves mismated the situation is rendered more 
 acute and the denouement more tragic when "another woman" enters the scene. 
 Eighteen of Miss Brandt's 574 deserters were reported to have left home with 
 another woman. "There were 35 other cases in which another woman was 
 believed to have been the explanation of desertion, though the man was not 
 known to have left with her." 1 Marriages thoughtfully entered into and based 
 
 1. Op. cit., p. 36. 
 
DESERTION TYPES. 47 
 
 upon genuine affection, preparation for marriage and adaptability to each other, 
 could hardly have such a termination. 1 
 
 Probably the largest number of permanent desertions are traceable to ill- 
 advised marriages. The ease and casualness with which marriage may be con- 
 tracted in this country, the lack of safeguards thrown about it, and the general 
 decline of respect for it as an institution make this a typical American deser- 
 tion. It is not due primarily to city conditions, although they effect it, but 
 to the laxity of ideals common to our national life. 
 
 So long as marriage is made a toy of passing whims, to be taken up or 
 discarded as individual impulse dictates; so long as our laws allow it to 
 be undertaken without regard for the responsibilities which 'attend it; so long 
 as lack of preparation, mental or economic, characterize those who take it up: 
 just so long will the ill-advised marriage type be outstanding wherever deser- 
 tion is a subject for consideration. 
 
 E The "Last Resort" Type. 
 
 A portion of the men who desert are not without excuse. Impulse is 
 not responsible for their departure; they are not lacking in a sense of familial 
 duty; they are not necessarily persons who have contracted thoughtless or 
 ill-advised marriages; they are not of that group who become deserters as it 
 were by accident, without premeditated intent to become so. They are men 
 who have really tried in many ways to adjust themselves to a difficult family 
 situation and have failed. They have finally decided upon desertion because 
 U seemed the only door open. They have weighed the consequences fully and 
 have adopted the expedient as a last resort. 
 
 A somewhat extreme instance will illustrate: 
 
 The domestic situation in Henry Slokowski's home might well have tried 
 the patience of any man. When he married Anna she was a rather attractive 
 girl, pretty in a cheap way, and apparently as well endowed for the duties of 
 married life as any of the other girls in the Polish community where they lived. 
 It did not take many days of wedlock, however, to reveal that a ready wit 
 which had been one of her charms in her lover's eyes, might, under certain 
 circumstances, add venom to a shrewish tongue. Her easy flow of conversa- 
 tion when it found expression in a deluge of scoldings and abuse was often 
 hard to bear. Henry was a good worker and found no difficulty in keeping em- 
 ployed at wages ranging from sixteen to thirty-two dollars per week; but Anna 
 was unthrifty and the contents of the pay envelope, which he faithfully turned 
 over to her every Saturday night, ran through her fingers with little to show 
 for it. A slovenly, ill-kept house made a proper frame for a slatternly wife. 
 When the children began to come they fitted into the picture, their unwashed 
 little bodies and dirty clothing matching hers. Every night, coming home from 
 work to a half-prepared meal and a disorderly household, Henry faced a volley 
 of abuse because he did not earn more than he did. 
 
 Henry patiently endured all this for ten long years. He drank a little 
 occasionally, but not to excess. The social conversation of the Polish saloon 
 where he dropped in for a glass of beer perhaps twice a week, was prac- 
 tically his only recreation or diversion. Even this was made the subject of 
 bitter abuse by his wife. In and out of his hearing she did not fail to inform 
 those who would listen of how lazy he was that he did not earn more, and 
 of how he wasted that little in saloons and beer halls while his neglected 
 family bore the penalty. 
 
 Possibly Henry would have gone on to the end in this humble, hen-pecked 
 existence had not Martin Pribiloff appeared on the scene. He had come into 
 the home as a boarder; he remained as Anna's lover. Obviously Henry was in 
 the way; so, as meekly as he had been a husband, he became a deserter. The 
 charities know where he is and know that he would go back today willingly 
 
 1. Dr. Devme expresses the conviction that another woman is not the immediate 
 cause or desertion so frequently as has been supposed ; that acquaintance with her is 
 more commonly formed after the desertion has taken place and the home ties are 
 broken. She may be a cause of failure to return home. Principles of Relief, p. 137. 
 
48 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 if Anna would give up Pribiloff, for he is a man with whom even such a de- 
 gree of forgiveness is possible. As it is he is a deserter, a man who became 
 so only as a last resort, not knowing what else to do. 
 
 Among the poor as among the rich there are scolding and shrewish wives, 
 and extravagant and wasteful wives. In the case of the poor this often means 
 disorderly households bearing no semblance to homes, added to the rest, which 
 eventually leads to desertion where it would lead to divorce among the well- 
 to-do. The "last straw," the immediate occasion of desertion, may be no worse 
 than many incidents which have preceded it. The discomforts of maladjust- 
 ment in the family may be rather unimportant individually, but at last, some- 
 times after years, become unendurable. Some deserters of this type, like Henry 
 Slokowski, may be willing to return after a time to try it again, and in some 
 instances their wives may be chastened and improved by the experience. It is 
 more probable, however, that with such men desertion is veritably a "poor 
 man's divorce," having all the elements of finality and complete termination 
 of the union. The marital experience some unforgiveable circumstance, a 
 man in the case, or home life rendered a torment because of the unendurable 
 characteristics of the other has so embittered them that reconciliation is not 
 possible. 
 
 Such a background of experience evidently belonged to one man to 
 whom Judge Uhlir, of the Chicago Court of Domestic Relations, gave the choice 
 of going to the Bridewell or returning to his wife. His answer bespoke vivid 
 impressions of past domestic relations: "Well, Judge, the Bridewell is not 
 so bad!" 
 
 Such was the state of mind, apparently, that prompted Antonio Salvatore, 
 a Sicilian immigrant, to the following letter. It was written from an eastern 
 city in response to urgings from the Chicago United Charities that he return 
 and rejoin his abandoned wife and babies: 
 
 "I am asking her [his wife] if she remembers what she has done to 
 me. * * * She wanted to do whatever came into her mind. I do not 
 want her any more. I would rather like to die. She is free now; she 
 may take any young man she likes. If you knew what she has done to me 
 you would think her deserving to be burned alive. My first thought has 
 been that to kill her, but thinking of my children kept me from doing it. 
 I used to carry my revolver whenever I went out with her. Finally I 
 decided to abandon her. She is apt to make you believe that the moon 
 starts from the sea. Nobody abandons his family without a reason. So 
 long as only interests are concerned it does not matter much, but when 
 honor is at play one cannot be indifferent. If your wife had done all this 
 . would you live with her? You would either have killed or deserted her 
 also. Ask her if she wants a divorce. In this case I will come and 
 get my children. 
 
 "I await a good answer. Greeting you I am" 
 
 ANTONIO SALVATORE. 1 
 
 When careful investigation proves that the deserter has been justified in 
 refusing to remain with his wife the matter is one fully warranting a divorce or 
 legal separation, and simple justice to the deserter demands that it shall be 
 granted. The desertion laws of several states specifically state that the penalty 
 provided shall be inflicted only in case the man shall be found "without lawful 
 excuse," - and this is implicit in all of them. Yet at the present time a man 
 may be discharged by the courts as not guilty of "wilful" desertion, and yet 
 remain legally bound to his wife a legally sanctioned deserter, so to speak. 
 
 Generally, although not invariably, the "last resort" desertion is one that 
 occurs after several years of married life, as distinguished from the desertion 
 soon after marriage, characteristic of the "ill-advised marriage" type. As- 
 Miss Brandt says, "it is in the first years, while the process of adjustment is 
 
 1. Original letter on file in the office of the Stock Yards District of the Chicago 
 United Charities. 
 
 2. E. g., Massachusetts ; Maryland. , 
 
DESERTION TYPES. 49 
 
 going on and the birth of each child comes as a distinct complication of the 
 economic problem of the family that the strain is greatest." l The fact that so 
 large a percentage of those who weather the strain of these first years do 
 subsequently desert gives an added significance to their action when finally 
 taken. Of the 298 cases known to Miss Brandt more than one-fourth had been 
 married more than ten years at the time of their first desertion, and 54.03 
 per cent had been married six years or more.- While it is not correct to 
 assume that every man who waits to desert until he has been married a half 
 dozen years or more is one of the "last resort" type, probably many of them 
 are: men who have been long-suffering and have forsaken their families only 
 when married life became unendurable. , 
 
 3 THE VANISHED HUSBAND. 
 
 Of the 211 Philadelphia deserters the whereabouts of 57 were recorded as 
 unknown, and the committee states, "it is safe to say that to those 57 could be 
 added a large number of the 75 as to whose whereabouts no statement is 
 recorded." 3 Of Miss Brandt's 574 the locations of 310, more than half, were 
 unknown. 4 Of the 3,286 cases brought to the attention of the National Deser- 
 tion Bureau during its first three years 881, or more than a fourth, were not 
 found after repeated efforts by the Bureau. 5 
 
 As one turns through the case records of relief societies the eye comes 
 repeatedly upon statements to the effect that the husband deserted five, ten, 
 fifteen years ago and "has not been heard of since." 
 
 Needless to say, there is no hope of reclaiming a deserter unless he can 
 first of all be located. The problem of "the vanished husband" whom every 
 effort has failed to reveal is so well recognized by some of the states that 
 they have enacted legislation permitting the wife to regard her husband as 
 dead if no news of him is received for a stated period of time. It is true many 
 times that lack of means to prosecute the search, or indifference on the part 
 of the family, results in returning an answer to the investigator to the effect 
 that the deserter's present location is unknown, when a very slight effort 
 might disclose him near at hand. This is made clear by the work of the 
 National Desertion Bureau. The 2,405 deserters which they have succeeded 
 in locating (73 per cent of all cases referred to them) were "vanished hus 
 bands" before they were referred to the Bureau for location, and but for 
 the kindly and efficient work of the Bureau they would probably have re- 
 mained so until they decided of their own accord to reveal themselves. 
 
 Strictly speaking this is not a separate type of deserter. The "vanished 
 husband" is any one of the other types who is lost to view. 
 
 4 THE RECLAIMABLE vs. 
 THE IRRECLAIMABLE DESERTER. 
 
 Of the 2,405 deserters located by the National Desertion Bureau during 
 the first three years of its existence, reconciliation was effected in 780 cases. 
 In other words, nearly one-third (32.89 per cent) of those who were found 
 were reclaimed through the services of the Bureau. In 101 other cases recon- 
 ciliations were pending. In the light of experience we are safe in saying 
 that many of these would never have rejoined their families of their own 
 initiative. The report of the Bureau is a hopeful sign. It indicates clearly that 
 desertion is not irremediable, but that where there is the proper machinery 
 
 1. Op. cit., p. J3. 
 
 Z. Ibid. 
 
 3. Op. cit., p. 11. 
 
 4. Op. cit., p. 59. 
 
 5. Report of the National Desertion Bureau, 1912-1915, p. 7. 
 8. Report, 1912-1915, p. 8. 
 
50 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 for the undertaking a large part of the homes which desertion has disor- 
 ganized may be rehabilitated, and rehabilitated on the basis of a reconciled 
 family. 
 
 The question of the reclamation of deserters is apart from that of their 
 classification. Deserters who may be reclaimed are to be found in every 
 class; deserters whom no efforts can succeed in restoring occur in each as 
 well. 
 
 Other things being equal, the "gradual" deserter who did not intend to 
 desert in the first place, and the "intermittent husband" who is accustomed 
 to return at intervals anyway, are more likely to prove reclaimable; the "ill- 
 advised marriage" type and the "last resort" type, both of which have come 
 to regard marriage as a failure, are more likely to prove irreclaimable. But 
 we are justified in regarding deserters of whatever type as reclaimable until 
 circumstances appear on investigation of the individual case which make it ap- 
 pear otherwise. 
 
 One of the primary objects of the courts of domestic relations which have 
 been established in New York, Chicago, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Boston, Cincinnati 
 and Philadelphia is the rehabilitation, as far as may be, of homes broken up 
 by desertion. 1 This is the raison d'etre of the National Desertion Bureau. 
 In theory, at least, this is the objective of every relief agency to which de- 
 serted women appeal. The highest end to be sought is rehabilitation on a basis 
 of honest reconciliation between husband and wife, where that is possible and 
 desirable. 
 
 Many times reconciliation is not possible; sometimes it is not desirable. 
 This fact must not be blinked. Such are the cases where the deserter cannot 
 be found at all, or if found, is in such a condition as to be unable to care for 
 himself, much less a family; cases where defective children would result from a 
 reunion; cases where the vices, habits or idiosyncrasies of one or both make 
 home inevitably a hell for the other. Shutting our eyes to such conditions 
 does not eliminate them. Reconcilation at all costs is a policy to which, in 
 the interest of the highest social welfare, we cannot consistently commit our- 
 selves. 
 
 1. Detroit formerly had a court of domestic relations, but it was discontinued be- 
 cause found unconstitutional. The Domestic Relations Court was formerly a branch 
 of Division Two of the Kansas City, Missouri, Municipal Court, but it no longer 
 exists. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 Treatment of Desertion. 
 
 PHASES OF TREATMENT. 
 
 In attempting to deal with the individual case of desertion we are con- 
 fronted at the outset with two distinct problems. On tfee one hand is the 
 deserter himself; on the other, the abandoned wife or family. 
 
 This natural line of division suggests phases of treatment to correspond: 
 that with reference to the deserter has primarily to do with locating him and 
 persuading him to resume his domestic obligations; that with reference to the 
 deserted family must consider ways and means of maintaining its members 
 until the deserter shall have resumed responsibility for them, or until they 
 have become self-supporting. Any plan of treatment which does not consider 
 both is only partial and does not reach the real objective that of re-establish- 
 ing normal familial relations. 
 
 Neglect to take both of these sides of the situation into consideration has 
 led in the past to inadequate policies of treatment. On the one hand, the 
 courts have confined their activities largely, wherever they have acted at all, 
 to the purely juridical matters of securing the punishment of the offending 
 husband, and have left the family out of consideration. On the other, the 
 charities, which have helped support the dependent families have, partly of 
 necessity, neglected the possibility of bringing the deserter to task. 
 
 A normal family adjustment can be secured only when both of these factors 
 are dealt with successfully. To this end there must be co-operation of effort 
 between those who have each in charge. 
 
 A With Reference to the Deserter. 
 
 Desertion or non-support or both are now expressly forbidden by law in 
 every state of the union. This prohibition is supported by a variety of policies 
 of enforcement, and a still wider divergence of opinion exists as to the treat- 
 ment which should follow conviction for the offense. 
 
 (a) WARRANT FOR ARREST. 
 
 The first step toward enforcement of the law is to obtain a warrant for 
 the arrest of the offender. If the wife or those interested in her behalf can 
 persuade the deserter to return without legal procedure it is preferable. The 
 warrant should be used only in case persuasion fails, in order that he may not 
 be needlessly antagonized. 
 
 There is reason to suppose that a large number of wilful deserters concern- 
 ing whose guilt there is no shadow of a doubt escape prosecution as a result 
 of failure on someone's part to put the machinery of the law into motion 
 against them. 
 
 To what extent is this true? 
 
 With this question in mind four hundred cases were taken at random 
 from families known to the Chicago United Charities, and examination wan 
 made to ascertain how many of them had ever been taken into court. Forty- 
 three of these were later discarded because information was not available. 
 Of the remaining 357 inquiry showed that warrants had been issued in only 
 fifty-four cases. That is, in 263 or more than 73 per cent of the cases taken 
 without previous information on the point, the law had not been called into 
 service at all. 
 
52 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 The reasons for this failure were afterwards looked up in a number of 
 cases and a variety of explanations found: 1 
 
 aa. No warrant issued because the wife "refuses emphatically to take 
 any steps toward her husband's arrest; thinks it a waste of time as he will 
 never keep up any payments which the courts may require, and if he is im- 
 prisoned she will gain nothing. Wants the case dropped." 
 
 bb. No warrant issued because after consultation with the Legal Aid 
 Society they "decided it was not worth while, that the wife was better off 
 without him." 
 
 cc. A case similar to the preceding. Upon advice it was decided that 
 it was better not to bring the husband back as he was a drunken wreck, in- 
 capable of supporting himself, much less anyone else. 
 
 dd. No warrant issued because the desertion itself took place in another 
 state and so was not under the jurisdiction of the Chicago courts. 
 
 ee. No warrant issued because the wife did not want to incur the pub- 
 licity attending a prosecution. 
 
 ff. No warrant issued because the wife was unwilling to institute pro- 
 ceedings against her husband, being still fond of him. 
 
 gg. No warrant issued because the wife considers herself fortunate in 
 being rid of a creature who only lived at her expense when at home. Should 
 he return he would probably only become a burden upon her again, a thing 
 which she earnestly wishes to avoid. 
 
 hh. No warrant issued because the wife was unable to give the Court 
 of Domestic Relations his address, and they refused to issue one without it. 
 The United Charities tried to locate the man in order to secure a warrant, 
 but failed. Later the Legal Aid Society found him in St. Louis, the expense 
 for his detection being met from private funds. He was found living with 
 another wife, and when questioned repudiated the Chicago marriage. Was 
 not returned because funds for his extradition were not available. 
 
 ii. No warrant issued because the wife feared that her brutal husband 
 might take vengeance upon her in some way should she undertake to prose- 
 cute him. 
 
 A warrant for arrest can be issued only upon complaint of someone 
 eligible to enter a charge. As to who this should be Mr. Baldwin speaks as 
 follows : 
 
 "Any person may make the complaint when an offense against the 
 state has been committed. The agent of any organization interested in 
 such cases already has this right, therefore, and the only question is as to 
 how or when it shall be begun by someone other than the wife. Usually 
 she is the proper one to do this, but when she is deterred by fear, or 
 there is a probability that the chance of reconciliation will be less if she 
 acts, some one else, with a knowledge of the facts, some good probation 
 officer who has been looking after the children, some agent of a Humane 
 Society who has discovered conditions in the family which demand atten- 
 tion, may do so. It is proper to respect family relations when they are 
 normal, but often they are not." 2 
 
 1. As will be clear from the following, these failures to obtain court action are 
 in no sense a criticism of the United Charities. Under the present operation of the law 
 it would be futile to attempt court action in many cases. In others the family is 
 touched for a brief time only, while relief needs are acute, and soon passes out of 
 notice. Moreover, the United Charities has such a large volume of emergency work 
 each year as to be quite unable, except in a limited number of cases, to do even the 
 preliminary things necessary before a desertion case can be taken up with the court 
 officials. 
 
 2. "The Present Status of Family Desertion and Non-support Laws," p. 34. Ab- 
 stract appears in Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, 
 1911, p. 406. 
 
 NOTE. The state law of Minnesota expressly provides, however, that no one but 
 the wife can make complaint in such cases. 
 
TREATMENT OF DESERTION. 53 
 
 There is an advantage in having the warrant signed by the wife, for it 
 practically commits her to seeing the prosecution through. If a third person 
 has obtained a warrant relying upon the wife as the main prosecuting witness, 
 it is within her power to destroy the whole case by refusing to testify at the 
 critical moment, her resolution to do so being broken down when she is con- 
 fronted in court by the husband himself. This is very annoying to those who 
 have carried the case so far in her behalf, especially if time and expense have 
 been required to secure his presence in court. If the wife herself has secured 
 the warrant she is placed in a position where she cannot consistently refuse 
 to carry the proceedings to a conclusion. 
 
 A quite natural reluctance exists on the part of some philanthropic societies 
 to initiate legal proceedings. They feel, and properly so,' that their ability to 
 serve the needy may become prejudiced if they become mixed up in the courts, 
 and that their standing in the community may be injured if they gain a reputa- 
 tion for doing so. This difficulty may be gotten around by having the warrant 
 sworn out in the name of one of the agents of the society as a private indi- 
 vidual rather than in the name of the society itself. 
 
 No set rules can be made, therefore, as to who shall institute proceedings. 
 The question must be decided in the light of the facts of each case as it arises. 
 Assuredly the society should not commit itself to the position that it will 
 under no circumstances agree to prosecute. As it is at present, with the wife 
 unwilling or afraid to take action, and the societies themselves refusing to do 
 so, men may and do escape through very lack of someone to take out warrants 
 against them. 
 
 A regretable feature of some of the courts, of which the Chicago Court 
 of Domestic Relations is one. is their refusal to issue warrants for the arrest 
 of deserters even when earnestly requested to do so, unless a probable address 
 can be given. Thus another loop-hole of escape is furnished men who are 
 sufficiently careful to keep a knowledge of their whereabouts from their 
 families. By the very nature of the offense these families, the ones most 
 interested in the deserters' apprehension, are the ones least apt to know where 
 the wanderers are. To require them to locate the deserter before a warrant 
 is issued would be ludicrous if not so serious. 
 
 What a farce our entire legal system would be if this policy were applied 
 to all criminals; if warrants for arrest were never issued unless the address 
 of the person wanted were definitely known! With a strange inconsistency 
 our courts, which are willing to undergo great trouble and expense to locate 
 a bank-robber or a house-breaker, and which often scour the continent in 
 search for a suspected forger, are comparatively indifferent to the crime of 
 desertion. From the standpoint of community self-interest wilful desertion is 
 more to be deplored than many other crimes. Its effects are far reaching. Not 
 only by its creation of dependents does it throw a more general burden upon 
 the community than does the mere looting of a till, but by its injury to the 
 family it strikes at the foundations of national integrity. The emphasis which 
 regards desertion as a trivial offense is indeed unfortunately placed. 
 
 By all means the issuance of a warrant for a deserter should be made as 
 easy as for any other criminal. No change in the law is required to bring 
 this about since desertion and non-support or both are already statutory 
 offenses. The change required is in the attitude of those who are sworn to 
 uphold the law. The creation of courts of domestic relations is a big step in 
 the right direction, but greater efficiency in this regard is possible. 
 
 (b) LOCATION AND APPREHENSION. 
 
 The attitude on the part of the courts which has been described has led 
 in some cases to a feeling of immunity on the part of the deserter. So far 
 from considering himself a fugitive from justice as one who is guilty of a 
 criminal offense should be made to regard himself the sole care may be to 
 keep himself out of the immediate reach of his family. 
 
 Mrs. Selz, for example, has known for two years that Fred is "somewhere 
 on the North side." At rare intervals, once every six months or so, he comes 
 
54 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 over to his old neighborhood, meets his two children as they come from school, 
 visits with them briefly on the street corner, gives them candy and chewing 
 gum, and goes his way. Mrs. Selz does not know her husband's address and 
 her facilities for finding it are limited. She is a detective neither by instinct 
 nor training; and the big city, beyond the restricted limits of her immediate 
 neighborhood, is a Cretan labyrinth. But the police could locate him on 
 twenty-four hours' notice should they at any time be seriously charged with 
 the task. When the deserter has so little fear of the law that he does not 
 consider it worth while to leave the community to make himself safe experi- 
 enced officers would not find his apprehension a difficult matter. 
 
 In the main, deserters do not take a chance of remaining within the 
 jurisdiction of the court. They exercise care to keep their location unknown, 
 and go to other cities or states where they cannot so easily be found. This 
 necessitates an especial machinery for finding them out akin to that for 
 locating other criminals. Every means which is employed by the law in 
 locating criminals of other types should be used in locating the deserter who 
 has fled court jurisdiction. This work is essentially that of police and detec- 
 tive officers. They have the equipment, the experience and the system for 
 undertaking it. 
 
 If the man is a first offender, or if the chances for reconciliation are better 
 if legal pressure is not resorted to, the charities may volunteer to locate him 
 on their own initiative, and turn the case over to the authorities only if they 
 do not succeed; particularly if the man is thought to be somewhere within 
 easy reach. But this is not the major office of charitable societies; they are 
 not equipped for the work, and whatever money or energy they expend in this 
 way is diverted from .important labors of another character. 
 
 When the courts are indifferent or negligent about taking up cases to 
 which their attention is properly called the charities are in, a difficult position. 
 If they make an effort to locate deserters and to induce them to rejoin their 
 families, it is at the expense of other duties; and because they are limited 
 as to the legal pressure which they can bring to bear the success of their 
 efforts is by no means assured. If, on the other hand, they do not make such 
 an effort, they must inevitably suffer from the impositions of families with 
 questionable claims to assistance. 
 
 This problem of "the vanished husband," so perplexing to the average 
 charity society in the absence of proper support from the courts, has been 
 faced squarely by the National Desertion Bureau. This organization for dealing 
 with deserters of the Hebrew race, has grown out of the activities of the 
 National Conference of Jewish Charities. Expressed in the words of its Secre- 
 tary and Counsel, Mr. Monroe M. Goldstein, the Bureau has 
 
 "formulated a method for locating deserters, established a network of 
 committees and agencies throughout the country and abroad, marshalled 
 such publicity forces as would aid in locating deserters, and organized a 
 comprehensive system not alone to locate deserters but to enable it to deal 
 with the individual cases until a definite and constructive result has been 
 procured. Equally important was the establishment of a system to follow 
 up the results obtained in the individual cases; this meant the investigation 
 of homes, economic and social conditions, study of the charity budgets 
 for deserted families, and included the organization of a competent legal 
 staff to deal with that part of the work which required the prosecution 
 of offenders." * 
 
 Since its establishment in February of 1911 the Bureau has instituted the 
 most comprehensive and far reaching method yet put into operation in the 
 United States for making desertion unpopular. It has succeeded in creating 
 an atmosphere of danger for Jewish deserters. The secret of its success is 
 largely found in the system of merciless publicity given this class of delinquents. 
 A "Deserters' Gallery" of photographs of men who are wanted under this 
 charge is kept running in the leading Jewish periodicals of this country and 
 
 1. Report, 1912-1915, p. 7. 
 
TREATMENT OP DESERTION. 55 
 
 Canada, with as minute a description of the men as is possible to secure. It is 
 difficult for concealment or an incognito to be long continued with these adver- 
 tisements going into every Jewish community in the country. About one 
 hundred and fifty Hebrew agencies in the United States and elsewhere cooperate 
 in this policy, reporting to each other as information is secured. The fact 
 of discovering themselves to be listed in the columns of wanted husbands is 
 enough to lead some men to give up the fight for concealment and to return 
 home. If a man upon discovery by the Bureau does not yield to moral 
 persuasion the Bureau itself undertakes action against him and compels by 
 means of law what the deserter would not do of his own volition. 
 
 The success of the Bureau in its work of location and apprehension may 
 be read in the reports of its first three years of work. From June 1, 1912 to 
 June 1, 1915, the Bureau handled 3,286 cases. Two thousand four hundred 
 and five men, or 73 per cent., were located, being traced to 239 different cities 
 of the United States, Canada, England, Austria, Argentine Republic, Cuba, 
 Barbadoes, Hungary, Holland and Palestine. 1 
 
 These figures bear eloquent testimony to the possibilities of dealing with 
 desertion when the work is undertaken by serious and organized effort. This 
 sort of work should be handled by the legal agencies of the government as a 
 part of the system of social protection. Because the law fails to make provision 
 for the work private gifts are making possible the work of the National 
 Desertion Bureau. In the meantime the Gentile population, inadequately pro- 
 tected by the law, and not possessing a desertion bureau of its own, continues 
 to have its cases handled ineffectively, and consequently can report no abate- 
 ment of the evil. 
 
 (c) RETURX TO JURISDICTION. 
 
 The majority of those who desert are of the class which Mr. Goldstein calls 
 "nomad husbands." They do not take up residence in the same city, but for 
 the sake of greater security leave the community entirely. Their freedom is 
 still more secure if they go to another state, from which they cannot be taken 
 without a process of extradition. Two features contribute to this security: 
 first, the general unwillingness of states to extradite a man for so "trivial" 
 an offense as desertion; second, the lack of available funds for returning the 
 deserter to the city where his presence is wanted. 
 
 By a resolution adopted by the Conference of Governors on Inter-state 
 Extradition at New York in 1887, the chief executives of the several states 
 went on record as to the first of these: 
 
 "Resolved. That it is the sense of this Conference that the governors 
 of the demanding states discourage proceedings for the extradition of 
 persons charged with petty offenses; and that except in special cases, under 
 aggravating circumstances, no demand shall be made in such cases." 2 
 
 Because desertion is regarded as a "petty offense" there has been a 
 tendency on the part of the several governors in whose hands rests the sole 
 power of granting requisitions for extraditions in accordance with the spirit 
 of the resolution of 1887, to discourage the extradition of deserting husbands. 
 
 But even should permission for extradition of a deserter be secured, as it 
 sometimes is, a still more effective obstacle to securing his return is found in 
 the lack of funds to cover the expense involved. Judge Joseph Z. Uhlir 
 experienced this difficulty while on the bench of the Chicago Court of Domestic 
 Relations: 
 
 "In addition to the changes in the law there is also needed an appro- 
 priation from the county funds for the arrest and return of deserting 
 husbands who have fled to other states. Running away is such an easy 
 method of avoiding trouble with wife and the law that cases of this sort 
 
 1. Report, 1912-1915, pp. 119, 120 and 121. 
 
 2. Quoted by Wm. H. Baldwin, "The Present Status of Family Desertion and 
 Non-support Laws," p. 17. Abstract appears in Proceedings of the National Conference 
 of Charities and Correction, 1911, p. 406. 
 
56 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 are extremely numerous. The deserting husband may of course be brought 
 back, but it costs money, and that is lacking. I took up the matter * * * 
 but I am sorry to say that the Commissioners [of Cook County, Ills.] saw 
 fit to make appropriation of one thousand dollars only. Much has been 
 accomplished with the small sum available, and if a larger sum could be 
 obtained, so that the deserter might almost uniformly be brought back, 
 the number of desertions would decrease very rapidly." 1 
 
 Charity agencies which are interested in giving material relief to the 
 deserted family cannot afford to expend their funds for the purpose of bringing 
 back the husband. Rarely are friends and relatives found who are able to 
 bear the expense. Least of all is the abandoned wife, so frequently an object 
 of charity herself, able to furnish the requisite cash. For the Gentile popula- 
 tion there is no National Desertion Bureau to provide the expenses of extradi- 
 tion after requisition has been granted. Yet funds are available for the 
 extradition of sufficiently "important" criminals of every other shade. It is a 
 singularly shortsighted policy not to make ample provision from public funds 
 for this purpose. The expense of supporting the family during the husband's 
 absence may be in excess of the cost of returning him to jurisdiction. But 
 since the latter would have to come from the public treasury, and the former 
 is usually met by private charity, the disposition has been to let the private 
 agencies bear the burden. If some way were devised for throwing the care 
 of deserted families solely upon the public treasury it would soon be forced 
 upon the consciousness of the officials that the more economical way would be 
 to get the man at all hazards. 2 
 
 (d) POLICY FOLLOWING COXVICTIOX. 
 
 Let us suppose that a deserter has been clumsy or unfortunate enough 
 to fail of the advantage of the many loop-holes for escape afforded by the law 
 and our negligent administration of it. A warrant, grudgingly though it may 
 have been, has been issued for his arrest; for once his concealment has failed 
 to grant him immunity; he has been seized and taken before the court, and 
 his guilt, without extenuating circumstances, has been established. How must 
 he be dealt with following conviction? 
 
 In the language of Dr. Robert H. Gault, editor of The Journal of Criminal 
 Law and Criminology: 
 
 "Ordinarily the offender and the individual or individuals who are 
 injured, have diverse interests. The punishment of the former, therefore, 
 does not interfere with the welfare of the latter. Indeed, the injured may 
 experience a degree of satisfaction because of the legally inflicted dis- 
 comfiture of the offender." In desertion cases, however, "the plaintiff 
 and defendant are representatives of a particular family a particular 
 unit in our social organization. This being the case * * * we ought 
 here to be particularly zealous lest in applying correctives we enhance 
 that suffering of wife or children or both, on account of which the action 
 was brought." 3 
 
 If imprisonment is inflicted upon the deserter under the present system in 
 Illinois and many other states it means that the family is deprived of all hope 
 of support from him during the period of his sentence. Such a policy gives 
 rise to a great economic waste: the man supported in jail at the expense of the 
 public, often in totally unproductive idleness; and the family Confirmed in its 
 dependency since the law has taken away its main hope for an independent 
 support. 
 
 If a fine is imposed it will have to be paid with money which might far 
 
 1. Report on the work of the [Chicago'] Court of Domestic Relations, 1913-14, 
 
 2. "The money saver! to the state by refusing to pay extradition costs must be 
 paid in another form by the public or private charities, and usually with most usurious 
 interest." Proceedings of the Seventh Maryland Conference of Charities and Correc- 
 tion, 1911, p. 105. 
 
 3. Editorial, November, 1912. 
 
TREATMENT OP DESERTION. 57 
 
 tetter be applied to the need of the neglected family. In either case the brunt 
 of the penalty will fall upon them. Moreover, such a penalty may very easily 
 cause the man's heart to be hardened against his family; punishment may 
 only serve to make the breach in the family wider and prevent for all time 
 the reconciliation of husband and wife, which is a part of the objective sought. 
 
 A policy is required which will make restoration of normal domestic rela- 
 tions and a prevention of future ruptures, and not punishment, the chief end 
 of treatment. With a purpose of working out such a policy there have been 
 established in various cities of the United States 1 courts of domestic relations 
 based on "a more just and sympathetic treatment of each offender," "not less 
 just because more intelligent and sympathetic." The animating purpose is 
 "not only to secure support, but also patiently to acquire and maintain such a 
 knowledge of each case as will enable him [the judge] to remove the causes 
 of non-support and restore the normal family relations by the use of all means 
 at his command." - Protection of home ties rather than punishment of the 
 offender is the aim of the court. 
 
 In many cases such is the testimony of the Chicago Court of Domestic 
 Relations the family is reunited not because of any fear of the law in the 
 offender's heart, but because the court has acted simply and naturally in the 
 capacity of friendly mediator between estranged husband and wife. The 
 elements of reconciliation were already there, and a go-between was all 
 required to accomplish it. 
 
 Others there are of the "irreconcilable" type who will under no circum- 
 stances resume life at home, or whose wives will not consent to their return. 
 Persons are not lacking who maintain that the law should be brought to bear 
 to compel obstinate ones to live together again. Such a policy does not seem 
 wise. Human nature being what it is, happiness is not induced by compelling 
 incompatibles to dwell together. Indeed, it may in certain cases be the duty 
 of the domestic relations courts to make certain that husband and wife shall 
 not live together again by assisting to secure them a legal separation or 
 absolute divorce. Cases where reunion can only mean a renewed round of 
 household abuse and harmful influences upon the children, or the quartering 
 upon the wife of a worthless husband who must be supported; cases where it 
 would mean the bringing of defective children into the world. In any event, 
 whether a reconciliation is effected or not, the deserter should be required to 
 contribute to his family's support; voluntarily if he will, under compulsion if 
 his consent cannot be obtained. The interest of society is not a sentimental 
 one, for society will have to make a living for the family if he does not, unless 
 they have other resources. Under the law he assumed responsibility for his 
 family when he married his wife. He is responsible for his children's existence 
 in the world. The law must see that he does not let them come to want, even 
 though it may not wisely compel him to share their domicile. 
 
 The policy of the domestic relations courts is to put the deserter under 
 
 1. Vide, p. 50. 
 
 2. Win. H. Baldwin, "The Court of Domestic Relations of Chicago," Journal of 
 Criminal Laic and Criminology, September, 1912. 
 
 :l. "In dealing- with infractions of the law, the Court of Domestic Relations does 
 not aim principally at punishing- the offender, but at working- out such a solution of 
 the whole problem as to prevent its recurrence, if possible, or to remove the causes 
 of it. What the judge of this court needs, is not so much profound erudition in the 
 technicalities of the law, a.s a sympathetic knowledge of human nature and an in- 
 stinctive recognition of the right method of handling the individual offender. As a 
 distinguished English visitor expressed it. the judge must be a wise Eastern kaadi. A 
 plain, friendly talk will convince one man that he has behaved badly, and he begs 
 forgiveness of his wife and promises the judge to keep away from liquor or whatever 
 the cause of the trouble may be, while another man gets more stubborn, if the judge 
 is inclined to show him leniency. Sometimes a mere taste of imprisonment will tame 
 a defiant husband. He is sentenced to six months in the House of Correction, and 
 the bailiff locks him up temporarily in a back room. It is wonderful what effect a few 
 hours' confinement will have. The man begins to figure out how long six months must 
 be if two hours seems an infinity, and when later in the day he is again brought before 
 the judge, he is a broken man and sincerely anxious to deserve the clemency of the 
 court It goes without saying that the judge makes extensive use of the probation 
 act. Sending the man to jail or workhouse leaves the family generally in destitute 
 circumstances. So the sentence is suspended, and the offender placed on his good 
 behavior, under the supervision of an adult probation officer." Judge Joseph Z. Uhlir, 
 op. cit., p. 2. 
 
58 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 / 
 
 order to contribute regularly to the support of his dependents, and to reserve 
 punishment as a last resort, inflicting it only as an alternative when the husband 
 proves unwilling to resume his obligations, or having agreed to, when he breaks 
 his promise. 1 
 
 For those men who are not amenable to anything less than punishment 
 special provision should be made. It is not enough that they be locked up for 
 an unproductive period in county jail or city Bridewell and the family left to 
 fend for itself or fall back upon charity. Some way should be devised whereby 
 the delinquent may be made to contribute to his family's support while under- 
 going punishment. 
 
 The law in the District of Columbia makes non-support "a misdemeanor 
 punishable by a fine of not to exceed five hundred dollars, or one year's 
 imprisonment with hard labor." In case of the fine being assessed, the court 
 is permitted to turn it wholly or in part to the wife. If the man is sent to the 
 workhouse, fifty cents is paid each day for the support of his children. 2 
 
 The Secretary of the California State Board of Charities and Correction 
 writes: 
 
 "In Los Angeles County family deserters are sent to a prison camp 
 where they work on public roads. A dollar and a half a day is paid to the 
 deserted family during the period of the man's imprisonment." 3 
 
 One of the difficulties at present encountered by the courts in attempting 
 to convict deserters has already been touched upon: the unwillingness of the 
 wife to testify at the critical point. When she is confronted by the man her 
 righteous indignation at his neglect often melts away and leaves her in a 
 forgiving mood; or his actual presence may intimidate her. In either case she 
 hesitates to testify to his hurt, and where she is the essential witness the 
 prosecution may entirely break down. 4 The wife rarely derives personal 
 satisfaction from her husband's punishment, however just the penalty may be; 
 and frequently after the court has passed sentence upon the husband, she 
 becomes the most earnest pleader for its mitigation. If, then, she knows that 
 
 1. The Kansas City plan is to handle desertion as one of the phases of work 
 of its Board of Public Welfare. A man guilty of abandonment is passed upon by 
 the Board of Pardons and Paroles as is any other offender. The paroled man is given 
 a written statement of the terms and conditions of his parole ; if he violates it he is 
 sent to the workhouse when caught for three times the unexpired term. He is required 
 to make a weekly report to the Board, stating place or employment, residence, wages 
 and detailed account of his expenses. Honest employment and respectable lodging are 
 required. Mr. Jacob Billikof, of the United Jewish Charities of Kansas City, reports 
 that at least 70 per cent have reported regularly and given satisfactory accounts of 
 themselves. For a deserter, whenever it is desired, paying a certain amount of the 
 weekly wage for family support may be made a condition of parole. Proceedings of 
 the National Conference of Jewish Charities, 1910, p. 107. 
 
 2. Judge William DeLacy, "Operation of the Law in Washington, D. C.," Pro- 
 ceedings of the Seventh Maryland Conference of Charities and Correction, 1911, p. 99. 
 
 3. Letter, June 7, 1915. 
 
 4. This is one of the reasons advanced against the expense of extraditing de- 
 serters. All the time, trouble and expense may go for nothing where the wife simply 
 by refusing to testify can stay the proceedings and give the court no choice but to 
 release the offender, who may promptly abscond again. 
 
 This has led to the suggestion that in cases of desertion and non-support the wife 
 be made a compellable witness. "If she can refuse to testify, thus making herself 
 responsible to her husband for any trouble her evidence causes him, she may be afraid 
 to give it, or if she does give it, may subject herself to ill treatment afterwards by 
 him on account of it. If the law compels her to testify the husband has no reason 
 to condemn her or to attempt to punish her for doing so. This makes it much easier 
 to bring out the facts and secure conviction where it is deserved." Wm. H. Baldwin, 
 Family Desertion and Non-support Laws, p. 29. 
 
 In seventeen states the wife is not a competent witness in desertion and non- 
 support cases : Arizona, Arkansas, California, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, 
 Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, 
 Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming. "She is a competent but not a compellable 
 witness in the District of Columbia, Kansas, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and it is 
 stated that in Connecticut her testimony, if offered, would not be refused. In all the 
 other states, either by general provision or by the laws on this subject, she is a com- 
 petent and compellable witness." Ibid. 
 
 (The Session Laws of Illinois for 1915, however, make the wife a competent but not 
 a compellable witness.) 
 
TREATMENT OF DESERTION. 59 
 
 his punishment will not profit her in the way of making her support easier, 
 but may make her lot harder by arousing his animosity against her, it is not 
 strange that she may consider the advantage arising from his conviction as 
 too small to justify the risk of appearing against him. 
 
 A treatment which will force the husband to contribute to his family's 
 support even when in prison will make the wife less reluctant to give evidence 
 necessary to the prosecution. 
 
 This advantage, however, is not the one of largest importance. The primary 
 reason for having such a policy is the fact that under any circumstances 
 where the husband is convicted of wilful desertion there is a guarantee that 
 he shall contribute to the support of those dependent upcte him. If such a 
 policy is in force it will not often happen that, given his choice, a man will 
 prefer to support his family as a convict rather than as a free man. 
 
 Oregon in 1907 passed a law providing that men guilty of non-support 
 might be compelled to work on the public roads, and that the county court 
 might pay not to exceed a dollar and a half for each day's labor. The same 
 year Indiana and Maryland passed laws providing that "excess earnings" of 
 non-supporters confined in the workhouse might be paid to the family; and 
 Colorado specified the same year that county prisoners be required to work 
 eight hours a day "when possible," and that from their earnings men in prison 
 for non-support should have from fifty cents to one dollar a day paid to their 
 families. Maine also made provision in 1907 for paying fifty cents a day to 
 families of such prisoners, repealed the law in 1909 and re-enacted it in 1911. 
 Under none of these does anything of consequence seem to have been paid. 
 Michigan, Ohio. Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Utah also have provisions 
 along this line. Michigan and the District of Columbia have had a more 
 successful experience in providing for families in this way than have any of 
 the others cited. 1 
 
 A pertinent query in connection with the treatment of deserters concerns 
 the grade of the offense. Thirty-four states, with the District of Columbia, 
 have made desertion or non-support a misdemeanor; the remaining fifteen have 
 made it a felony. 2 The distinction is important, for where the crime ranks 
 as a felony conviction leaves no choice as to the penalty: states imprisonment 
 is prescribed. 
 
 States which have made desertion a felony have been moved to do so 
 chiefly for the purpose of securing extradition, under the impression that 
 extradition cannot be secured for an offense less than a felony. 
 
 "As Mr. Baldwin, in his address before the National Conference of 
 Charities and Corrections at Boston, June 10, 1911, proves, it is a mistaken 
 impression. The Constitution of the United States in defining the extradi- 
 table person (Art. IV, Sec. 2) says: 'A person charged in any state with 
 treason, felony or other crime: etc. And this, as Mr. Baldwin points out. 
 
 1. Wm. H. Baldwin, "Present Status of Family Desertion and Non-support 
 pp. 29-31. Abstract appears in Proceedings of the National Conference of Char- 
 ities and Correction. 1911. p. 4 
 
 Judge W. X. Gemmill of the Chicago Municipal Court, and others, have pointed 
 out a practical difficulty in carrying out a law to remunerate the families of convicts 
 from the fruits of their prison labor? viz:, that in the present stage of prison indus- 
 tries often it is true that the prisoner does not produce enough to cover the actual 
 expense which the state incurs in supporting him. and that consequently there is no 
 surplus which could be devoted to the support of his family. Without pausing to com- 
 ment upon the management of a system which has the full use of a man's time and is 
 not able to make him self-supporting, able-bodied as he is. a question may be asked 
 
 Granted that the deserter's prison labor does not produce enough surplus to be of 
 material assistance to his family, in what respect is the community better off econom- 
 ically if it must by means of charity assume the expense of the family's support? 
 
 -. Misdemeanor: Alabama, Arizona. Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, District of 
 
 Columbia. Georgia. Idaho. Illinois, Kansas. Kentucky, Louisiana. Maryland. Massachu- 
 
 Minnesota. Mississippi. Montana. Nevada, New Hampshire. S'ew Jersey, New 
 
 Mexico, North Carolina. Oklahoma. Oregon. Pennsylvania. Rhode Island. North Caro- 
 
 rina. South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming. 
 
 Felony: California. Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Maine. Michigan, Mis- 
 souri, Nebraska, North Dakota, New York, Ohio, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin. 15. 
 
60 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 was confirmed fifty years ago by a decision of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States (24 Howard, U. S. 66) with reference to 'treason, felony 
 or other crime' in the following language: 'The word crime of itself 
 includes every offense from the highest to the lowest in the grade of 
 offenses, and includes what are called misdemeanors as well as treason 
 and felony.' 
 
 "Nothing more is needed to prove the extraditable character of misde- 
 meanor but there is further proof of the most cogent kind: the fact that 
 misdemeanants actually are, in many cases, extradited moved from one 
 state to another with facility and despatch. 1 
 
 "The strongest reasons against making the offense a felony are in the 
 first place, that the family has already been hard pushed by necessity 
 occasioned by an indolent or reckless head, and to place him in prison is 
 simply to aggravate the condition that led to the complaint against him. 
 It is like fining the drunkard who has deprived his family of bread to 
 supply himself with liquor; secondly, the case is usually begun in a lower 
 court which has no power, and which often releases the defendant on 
 mere promise of support, when there is no machinery to secure it; it is 
 much more difficult to get a conviction in a felony case, and the result is 
 that many who should fare otherwise go scot free of all responsibility." 2 
 
 B With Reference to the Abandoned Family. 
 
 The second phase of treatment has to do with the family which has been 
 left behind. Since the record is rarely made of the desertion unless the family 
 comes to want this is primarily a question of maintaining the family until the 
 deserter can be located and induced to resume responsibility for its dependent 
 members; or, in case he cannot be produced, until the family can be made 
 self-supporting. This phase of treatment is one which usually falls to the 
 charities. 
 
 If the expense of caring for deserted families were met from the public 
 treasury the eyes of the law would be more widely opened to its evils, and 
 possibly a more serious attempt would be made to deal with deserters. Self- 
 interest would prompt the state to such a course. Unfortunately the govern- 
 ment does not assume this burden in most communities at least not in its 
 entirety and this makes it obligatory for private philanthropy to come to the 
 rescue if aid is to be extended to all bona fide abandoned families. Probably 
 the readiness with which private charity takes up the obligation partly accounts 
 for the indifference of those in charge of public relief. 
 
 In a number of cities^New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Baltimore and 
 Washington among others public outdoor relief has been expressly done away 
 with for dependents of all classes. 3 Where this is the case a deserted family 
 that is really dependent has only one recourse unless it shall agree to be 
 broken up entirely and to have its members cared for in institutions, viz., to 
 apply to private charity. In a number of states a Mothers' Pension Act sets 
 aside from public funds an appropriation for the care of dependent mothers; 
 but several of these states forbid to deserted mothers participation in the 
 benefits of the act. 4 
 
 The private charities in many cities, therefore, have the responsibility of 
 
 1. Mr. Baldwin's table of statistics in connection with the address mentioned 
 shows that extraditions have taken place in at least fourteen states where desertion 
 ranks as a misdemeanor, Illinois among them ; and that "in New Jersey, where deser- 
 tion is a misdemeanor, there is a higher proportion of extraditions in proportion to the 
 population than in any jurisdiction in which the offense is a felony." 
 
 2. Editorial, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, November, 1912. 
 
 3. E. T. Devine, Principles of Relief, Part III, Chap. ii. New York City, however, 
 permits public outdoor relief to be given to the blind, and free distribution of coal in 
 winter. 
 
 4. The Illinois' parents pension law, effective July 1, 1911, as amended June 30, 
 1913, and July 1, 1915, formerly applied to deserted mothers as well as to widows and 
 women whose husbands are incapacitated ; as amended it excludes deserted women 
 whose husbands have been gone less than seven years, after which time they may be 
 legally regarded as dead. 
 
TREATMENT OF DESERTION. 61 
 
 caring for deserted families literally thrust upon them, and so are confronted 
 with the need of working out a definite policy of treatment. How the difficulty 
 of the task may be increased by inadequate laws or by failure of the courts and 
 public officials to cooperate has already been pointed out. 
 
 (a) ALL DESERTED WIVES AIDED WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION. 
 
 Many of the charities through lack of funds, lack of time, lack of sufficient 
 office force, sometimes through lack of sufficient interest, have no definite 
 desertion policy, a fact which some of them frankly admit. Burdened as they 
 are with more work than they are able to do they find it impossible to work 
 one out; nor are they equipped for carrying out other than the most simple 
 plans should a policy be clearly outlined. All cases are taken as they come, 
 relief being granted upon the basis of the needs of the applicant, with no 
 difference in treatment because of different social status of the applicants. 
 The majority of them, it would appear, do not even make provision for 
 recording deserted wives as a separate class of applicants, 1 and certainly 
 any method of treatment to be of value must first of all isolate its problem. 
 Other societies which report having policies of dealing with deserted families 
 state candidly that these policies exist only on paper for the most part, and 
 that they find it difficult to carry out a thorough-going plan for dealing with 
 desertion. 
 
 In brief, the working "policy" of such societies is to treat all deserted 
 women as widows, dependent because of being deprived of male support and 
 meriting charity without question because of the misfortune. It fails to dis- 
 tinguish the woman whose husband may be living from the woman whose 
 husband is dead. 
 
 The New Haven Organized Charity Association writes: 
 
 "Our society handles deserted wives in about the same way it handles 
 widows. The money set aside for these cases is given to a visitor who 
 distributes it as need arises and at the same time tries to find work for 
 the women." - 
 
 The Portland (Maine) Associated Charities writes: 
 
 "Our organization has, during, the past year, raised a special fund to 
 be used in pensioning widows and deserted wives and young children, and 
 the pension has been given to about the same number of both classes of 
 dependents. We have endeavored to treat each case on its merits and I 
 fear we have not arrived at a distinct policy with regard to relief in 
 desertion cases." = 
 
 The St. Louis Provident Association writes: 
 
 "We keep no separate account of expenditure for deserted wives and 
 have no special method for dealing with them. They are in the same class 
 with widows." * 
 
 Such a policy as this exposes the society to a host of impositions. A 
 man may be tempted to desert in times of stress (who otherwise would not), 
 if he knows his family will be cared for. It may seem easier to provide for 
 his family by disappearing till the emergency is relieved by others than to 
 remain and meet it face to face. If a society gets a reputation for caring for 
 all who come, without concern for the husband other than to establish the 
 fact that he is not living with his family, it may unwittingly serve to popu- 
 larize both spurious and bona fide desertions in that community. 
 
 Again, such a policy does nothing toward drawing husband and wife 
 together nor toward re-establishing normal domestic relations, when the society 
 
 1. Vide, p. 23. 
 
 2. Letter, February 27, 1915. 
 
 3. Letter, March 1, 1915. 
 
 4. Letter, February 26, 1915. 
 
62 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 might be able to serve as an effective go-between, a peace-maker, an arbiter 
 of domestic differences. As the courts of domestic relations repeatedly demon- 
 strate, an intermediary is sometimes all that is required to make reconciliation 
 possible. A plain duty is neglected if no attempt is made to serve in this 
 capacity. Relief too easily given may only keep husband and wife apart by 
 making their need of each other less. 
 
 (b) AID REFUSED TO ALL DESERTED WIVES. 
 
 At the other end of the scale may be found certain societies which refuse 
 to grant aid to any deserted family which may apply. This is the plan advo- 
 cated by Dr. Boris D. Bogen, and followed by the United Jewish Charities of 
 Cincinnati. This society, without rendering any relief at all, simply refers 
 deserted women to some organization which can advise as to the legal phases 
 of the matter and so, apparently, washes its hands of responsibility for them 
 altogether. 1 This very effectually checks any tendency to use desertion as 
 an excuse to "sponge" on the organization, and it may discourage some men 
 from deserting, particularly those of the "spurious" and the "intermittent 
 husband" types. The objection to this policy is that it does not have any 
 effect in bringing back to the family the deserter who has left home with the 
 intention of making his desertion permanent; and it leaves unassisted cases 
 of genuine suffering. 
 
 Between the two extremes indicated a variety of policies may be denned: 
 
 (c) BREAKING UP THE HOME. 
 
 Some societies maintain that only indoor relief should be given deserted 
 families; that the husband by going away has forfeited all right to have his 
 home kept together, and that if its members cannot keep it together un- 
 assisted they must be provided for in other ways than by outdoor relief. It 
 is also held that a policy of breaking up the home will discourage desertion; 
 that the husband will be less ready to go away on trivial or no provocation 
 if he knows that he will have no home to which he can return. 
 
 The Minneapolis Associated Charities writes: 
 
 "Theoretically the policy of the society regarding deserted wives is 
 that the wife shall place such children as she cannot support unaided in 
 an institution, and she herself shall keep with her one, two or more chil- 
 dren, but only so many as her own efforts can maintain. Then if the hus- 
 band returns it is distinctly his responsibility to re-establish the home 
 which he has broken up by his desertion. Wherever this method has been 
 tried, which has not been often, it has resulted usually in the return of 
 the man. The objections to the plan are * * * the immediate hard- 
 ships it puts upon the woman and children. Although in the long range 
 those hardships are much less, if it succeeds in bringing back the hus- 
 band, than in the continual anxieties of fast and loose method of periodic 
 desertion." This plan, however, is modified by practical considerations of 
 each case. 2 
 
 The Cook County Juvenile Court, and those of several large cities, agree 
 to care for dependent children in institutions in case the deserted mothers 
 cannot maintain them alone. This is a modification of this particular form of 
 treatment. 
 
 (d) RELIEF GRANTED ONLY ON CONDITION THAT THE WIFE SHALL AGREE TO 
 PROSECUTE HER HUSBAND. 
 
 Because the wife is the person principally aggrieved and is also the most 
 competent witness for the prosecution, the policy has been adopted by some 
 societies of refusing to grant aid to a deserted woman unless she shall agree 
 to take out a warrant and institute legal proceedings against her husband. 
 
 The Providence Society for Organizing Charity writes: 
 
 "Our society insists in cases of desertion that before relief is given 
 
 1. Proceedings of the National Conference of Jewish Charities, 1910, pp. 57 ; 103. 
 
 2. Letter, February 26, 1915. 
 
TREATMENT OF DESERTION. 63 
 
 other than emergency aid the deserted wife should enter a complaint with 
 the police." l 
 
 The New Orleans Charity Organization Society writes: 
 
 "While we may give temporary material aid until the case can be 
 thoroughly investigated, we always insist on the deserted wife taking her 
 case to the Juvenile Court and if she refuses to do this we drop the case 
 until she does." - 
 
 The Federated Jewish Charities of Boston writes: 
 
 "Wife must file application with the National Desertion Bureau and 
 take out a court warrant for arrest of deserter." 3 
 
 The Federation of Jewish Charities of Louisville writes: 
 
 "When a deserted woman comes for aid we insist on her signing a 
 warrant for the arrest of her husband should we be able to find him, and 
 if the woman refuses to do so we do not extend aid." 4 
 
 In many cases such a policy, rigidly carried out, would work an injustice 
 upon his wife. If her affections for her husband are still enduring it will be 
 painful in the extreme to take action against him, however much he may 
 deserve it. If he is of a resentful or unkind nature such an aggressive move- 
 ment on her part may stir him to hatred and cruel and abusive treatment 
 of her by way of retaliation; she may be afraid to comply. 
 
 When efforts at^ersuading the man to return have been of no avail a 
 society may fairly require as a condition of giving assistance that the wife 
 give her consent for some one else to take out the warrant in case it does not 
 seem expedient that she herself shall do so. Such a requirement would effec- 
 tively check demands for aid from spurious cases, for the wife would not be 
 willing to take out a warrant for a husband who had not really left her. It 
 would also s.erve to discourage men from deserting who do so in order to give 
 their families a better excuse for appealing to charity. After it becomes ap- 
 parent that nothing less, than legal action can be counted upon to secure the 
 man's return, the society is accessory to his delinquency if it continues to aid 
 the wife without obtaining her consent for a warrant to be secured. It is a 
 co-partner with the wife in shielding him from the law, and is to that extent 
 a contributor to his guilt. 
 
 1. Letter, March 23, 1915. 
 
 2. Letter, February 27, 1915. 
 
 3. Letter, July 14, 1915. 
 
 4. Letter, May 28, 1915. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Summary and Conclusion 
 
 Whatever else may have been conveyed by the foregoing pages it is hoped 
 that two facts have been made clear: first, that family desertion is a problem 
 of our society of sufficient importance to warrant the most serious considera- 
 tion; second, that the consideration which it has received in the past has not 
 been commensurate with that importance. 
 
 At least one-tenth of the poverty which compels the attention of organized 
 charity is traceable directly to this cause. No measure is available of its 
 cost in terms of broken homes, disintegrated family life, loss of character, 
 and deficient development of children. That desertion has come to our at- 
 tention so tardily is due to the fact that recognition of the home as an institu- 
 tion has been belated. That it is being 'studied now is due to the fact that 
 it has come to impose a heavy economic burden upon the relief agencies of 
 the country which is in great measure preventable, one which they cannot con- 
 tinue to bear without protest. 
 
 Desertion seems to grow out of human nature and the family situation 
 itself, for it is apparently common to all mankind. It is found in all parts 
 of the world, and has been known in all periods of history. No religion nor 
 race is exempt from it. But that it flourishes in environments which espe- 
 cially make for instability of the family is undoubtedly true. Conditions 
 particularly favorable to domestic disturbance are found in cities: the restraint 
 of the mores is less there, because of the absence of primary group attach- 
 ments; the size and mobility of the population makes for anonymity of the 
 individual, who finds in the fact a greater freedom to do as he pleases; in 
 the city the economic basis of family unity tends to disappear and life becomes 
 intensely individualistic; and a general spirit of restlessness and discontent 
 is prevalent. Family disintegration on an extensive 'scale is the result, and 
 among the poorer classes especially this disintegration takes the form of 
 desertion of families. In this the man is more commonly the offender, since 
 tradition and children bind the wife to the home. 
 
 Society's interest is more direct in cases where the man deserts, since 
 non-support is usually an accompaniment and the community must assume 
 the burden of his dependents. 
 
 Measures for dealing with desertion are still in the experimental stage. 
 Even yet comparatively few communities have worked out a thorough-going 
 policy of treatment. For those which have not done so a policy is suggested: 
 
 A SUGGESTED POLICY OF TREATMENT. 
 
 i. A Record of Desertion Cases. 
 
 The first step for every agency to which desertion cases come is to 
 make provision for recording deserted wives as a distinct class of applicants. 
 The extent of the problem cannot be known otherwise, nor can proper treatment 
 be applied. 
 
 The peculiar character of deserter makes it important to have a knowledge 
 of other matters than those needful for the files in usual cases of destitution. 
 The ordinary record blanks of the relief society are not suitable for recording 
 this additional information. It is suggested that a special schedule be prepared 
 for use in desertion cases in addition to the regular forms, upon which infor- 
 mation pertaining particularly to the desertion can be tabulated. Some of the 
 items especially valuable to record would be: date of present desertion; date 
 and length of previous desertions; circumstances under which desertions oc- 
 curred; circumstances under which the deserter returned each time previ- 
 ously; how the deserter spent the interval of absence; how the family main- 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 65 
 
 tained itself during those intervals, etc. Such records, if carefully prepared 
 would constitute a helpful collection of material for the office to use in deal- 
 ing with future cases, and a valuable body of information for further study 
 and analysis of the problem. 
 
 ii. The Training of a Desertion Specialist. 
 
 It would be well for every relief agency which handles desertion cases to 
 turn all such cases in to the same investigator so far as possible. If the 
 amount of work from this particular type of dependency is sufficient to justify 
 it one of the regular staff could be detailed as the desertion t official for the office. 
 The experience gained through repeated handling of cases of this character, 
 and the continual concentration of thought upon them by the same person, 
 would increasingly qualify him for this type of work and make him better 
 able to deal with the question discriminatingly and effectively. In this way 
 the agency would, without adding to the expenses of administration, develop 
 an authority upon the subject, a "desertion specialist" of its own. 1 
 
 iii. Separation of Spurious from Genuine Cases. 
 
 Is the case a bona fide desertion? This should be determined first of 
 all. For its own protection the relief agency must be severely critical in cases 
 of this sort. The desertion specialist of the office is the one to conduct all 
 investigation; his experience and training will make him more able than 
 anyone else to determine the authenticity of the claim. 
 
 iv. Efforts to Locate the Man. 
 
 If this is the man's first desertion, or if the situation in general seems 
 to indicate a likelihood of reconciliation it is preferable that the organization 
 undertake to locate him first rather than immediately to turn the case over to 
 the authorities. This does not mean that private societies should seek to take 
 the place of the police. Whenever they undertake to locate men who have de- 
 serted it should be clearly understood that they are doing so gratuitously and 
 simply because it seems in that particular case that reconciliation is more likely 
 to be effected by a private agency than by the police. Naturally the society 
 can ill afford to add detective work to its other pressing duties; and it should 
 not seek to relieve the police department of its proper responsibility. 
 
 When the deserter is found the society should employ all its powers of 
 kindly persuasion to heal domestic differences and to effect reconciliation, pro- 
 vided, in view of all the circumstances, reconciliation rather than divorce seems 
 more desirable, as ordinarily the great objective of the treatment of desertion 
 is to re-establish the home. The deserter may be more kindly disposed toward 
 his family and responsive to counsel if he is approached at first in a sympathetic 
 and friendly way, rather than with threat of arrest and prosecution. 
 
 If, for any reason, reconciliation between the deserter and his family is 
 impossible or inadvisable and sometimes that is the case he may still be 
 persuaded to contribute to its support without the law being invoked to compel 
 him to do so. a 
 
 v. "Interim Relief." 
 
 While efforts to locate the husband are going forward in the society tem- 
 porary relief may be given the wife until the possibility of the husband's return 
 shall be determined. This, it has been suggested, should be more sparingly 
 given during the interim than in the case of widows, in the hope that when 
 the condition of his family becomes known to the husband it may induce him 
 to return with less delay. 
 
 1. A plan similar to this was instituted in 1914 by the New York Association for 
 Improving the Condition of the Poor. Vide, The Survey, December 19, 1914 (Edi- 
 torial). 
 
 2. This, as Dr. Thomas J. Riley of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities remarks, 
 may be effective for short periods of time, but is not likely to prove successful in the 
 long run because the local organization has no legal hold on the man. 
 
66 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 > 
 
 It is desirable that the status of the family with reference to the deserter 
 be determined quickly and to that end the organization should work with what 
 despatch it may in the effort to locate the man, so that the interim may be no 
 longer than need be. 
 
 This "interim relief" is for the sole purpose of maintaining the family until 
 the progress of events may determine a permanent policy; but even this should 
 be granted the wife solely on the condition that she shall consent to the 
 issuance of a warrant for his arrest in case it is found impossible to secure 
 his acknowledgment of the domestic obligation in any other way than by 
 prosecution. This does not mean necessarily that the law will be invoked, but 
 that she is willing that it shall be when every other means fails. 1 
 
 vi. Legal Proceedings Against the Man as a Last Resort. 
 
 If the efforts of the society to locate the man are of no avail, or if when 
 found he cannot be persuaded to return, or if the character of the man is such 
 that he cannot be depended upon to keep any agreement he may make as to 
 caring for his family, his case should be turned over to the courts, there 
 to be dealt with in a more compelling way. 2 
 
 At this point it is of vital importance that the co-operation between public 
 and private agencies shall be complete. It is extremely discouraging to the 
 charities to push a case this far only to have an effectual solution fail to 
 develop through inadequacy or indifference of the courts, the law, or their 
 administrators. 
 
 Warrants should be issued as freely for deserters as for other criminals, 
 and not be withheld because a man's address is unknown. 
 
 vii. Establishment of a Municipal Desertion Bureau. 
 
 The local machinery for locating, apprehending and returning deserters 
 to jurisdiction, as it is at present operated, is highly defective. In communities 
 where desertion is of an extent to justify it a Desertion Bureau, with full legal 
 powers, should be established as an adjunct of the court, with an expert in 
 charge and an adequate staff of carefully selected competent workers, for 
 the purpose of doing this work effectively. A bureau is particularly de- 
 sirable where courts of domestic relations are already established. Their 
 reinforcement of each other would increase the effectiveness of both. The 
 Jewish National Desertion Bureau affords a working model as well as an in- 
 spiration for the activities of such a municipal bureau. This department 
 should be financed from public funds, with ample appropriation made for 
 returning men who have fled to distant points and for carrying on all other 
 work essential to its success. In the long run a generous appropriation for 
 such a department would be justified as a public economy. The records of the 
 Chicago Court of Domestic Relations and of the National Desertion Bureau are 
 sufficient evidence upon this point. 
 
 viii. The Deserted Wife Who is Virtually a Widow. 
 
 On the books of practically all charitable societies there are cases of 
 deserted women who are virtually widows. The desertion has taken place years 
 ago and all hope of the husband's return has long since been abandoned. 
 These are the "vanished husbands" whom it seems likely no effort will locate. 
 For these cases, as Miss Zilpha D. Smith suggested in 1901, there seems no rea- 
 son why treatment should differ from that accorded widows. Treatment of 
 them must be in accord with the needs of the individual case, relief being 
 given in the form of a mother's pension, institutional care, or regular outdoor 
 relief, whichever the situation warrants. 
 
 1. The question of who shall sign the warrant has already been discussed. (Vide, 
 pp. 52, 53.) If it is taken out by the relief society or its agent, and there is danger that 
 the wife shall not keep her agreement to testify to her husband's delinquency should 
 it become necessary, the society may secure from her beforehand an affidavit to his 
 neglect or abuse, or a written agreement to appear against him. This would prob- 
 ably not be acceptable as testimony in court, as over against her refusal to testify, but 
 it would at least serve to put her in a position where she could less gracefully refuse 
 to testify. 
 
 2. The policy to be followed has already been discussed in chap. vi. 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 67 
 
 A far deeper question than that of the treatment of desertion is that of its 
 tition. The social objective must be not merely one of rehabilitation of 
 families which have been broken up, but the larger one of saving them from 
 disintegration before it actually sets in. Except insofar as it may discourage 
 other desertions any treatment of those which have already taken place is of 
 necessity chiefly palliative; it leaves the roots of the infection still within the 
 social system. 
 
 The family today, as never before, is being subjected to influences which 
 are modifying it in vital ways. As a living organism it must change in order 
 to adapt itself to the demands of the day and generation. Unfortunately various 
 elements are entering into its readjustment which are causing it to fall as an 
 object of esteem as an institution in the eyes of many persons. Because they 
 hold it of such low value they treat its obligations lightly, and lay them aside 
 almost at will. The problem, then, is one of raising the value of family and 
 home in the estimation of those who have taken upon themselves the responsi- 
 bilities which they involve. It is not enough to try to arouse in men a sense of 
 duty which will hold them to homes which they would prefer to leave. It is 
 not enough to perfect machinery which will compel men to shoulder domestic 
 responsibilities which they wish to evade. Those things are important, but 
 they are not solutions. The big undertaking is to implant in men and women 
 a new scale of social values in which the home shall have first place. 
 
 Such an undertaking involves education, character building, the inculcation 
 of high ideals of home life and of family importance in the individual. It also 
 involves, in most cases, a raising of family standards and improvement of 
 home conditions which surround the individual; and this in turn many times 
 involves an improvement of economic conditions which shall make such improve- 
 ment possible. If men and women are to regard the home as worth while it must 
 be made worth while. We must not suppose that domestic unrest and this 
 lowering of domestic values can be isolated and considered in their individual 
 aspects alone. They are but symptoms of a deep-lying and fundamental disor- 
 ganization which must be readjusted before they will disappear. 
 
 A community, therefore, must not depend upon its legal and charitable 
 agencies, however efficient they may be, for a solution of its desertion problem. 
 It must go behind the concrete outcroppings with which these specialized 
 agencies deal, to the lives and homes of the people who compose it. Definite 
 programs must be thoughtfully worked out, having as their objective the con- 
 servation of the home. It is not intended at this point to suggest such programs 
 in detail. Doubtless the most important point of concentration is found in the 
 youth of today who are to be tomorrow's home makers. Boys and girls should 
 have brought to them systematically the implications of the family. Sex edu- 
 cation should receive greater attention; the duties as well as the privileges of 
 wedlock should be borne in upon them, and the sacredness of parenthood. 
 School and church should conspire to eliminate any idea of marriage as a light 
 or trivial thing. All forces at our disposal should be brought to bear to make 
 them feel the supreme importance of the home in our social and moral life. 
 
 To this great task of social prophylaxis our urban communities, especial!}', 
 must soon seriously address themselves. Any attempt to deal with desertion or 
 any other phase of family disintegration which does not take into considera- 
 tion the conditions which give it rise, is superficial and foredoomed to failure. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 I. VARIOUS CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 1 National Conference of Charities and Correction. 
 
 1902. "What Part Shauld Relief Play in Treatment of Families Whose 
 Distress is Due Mainly to the Husband's Fault or Defect?" 
 
 1905. "Desertion and Extradition." A letter from Wm. H. Baldwin to the 
 Conference. 
 
 Report of the Committee on Resolutions, and Resolutions on Desertion 
 and Extradition. 
 
 1911. Wm. H. Baldwin, "The Present Status of Family Desertion and 
 Non-Support Laws." 
 
 J. C. Logan, "A Social Policy for Dealing with the Recreant Husband 
 and Father." 
 
 1912. H. E. Varga, "Desertion of Wives and Children by Emigrants to 
 America." 
 
 2 Canadian Conference of Charities and Correction. 
 
 1911. George Kennedy, "Family Desertion." 
 
 1912. Rufus Smith, "Desertion and Non-Support." 
 
 3 National Conference of Catholic Charities. 
 
 1912. Patrick Mallon, "Desertion and Non-Support." 
 
 4 National Conference of Jewish Charities. 
 
 1900. Nathan Bijur: Report of Committee on Desertions. 
 
 1906. L. K. Frankel: Report of Committee on Desertions. 
 
 1910. Morris D. Waldman, "Family Desertion." 
 
 1912. Morris D. Waldman: Report of Committee on Desertions. 
 
 5 Various State Conferences. 
 Florida: 
 
 1914. Marcus C. Fagg, "How to Deal With Wife Deserters and Recreant 
 Husbands." 
 
 Indiana: 
 
 1911. Family Desertion. Discussion. 
 
 1912. C. C. North, "Vagrancy and Family Desertion." 
 
 Iowa: 
 
 1906. Clare Lunbeck, "Does Iowa Need a Law to Punish Family Deser- 
 tion?" 
 
 Maryland: 
 
 1911. James T. O'Neill, "Non-Support and Family Desertion." 
 William DeLacy, "Operation of the Law in Washington, D. C." 
 
 Massachusetts: (Proceedings not published.) 
 
 1903. Max Mitchell, "Deserted Wives." 
 
 W. H. Hardy, "Non-Supporting Husbands at Home." 
 
 1910. C. C. Carstens, "A Study of the Enforcement of the Non-Support 
 Law in Massachusetts." 
 
 Missouri: 
 
 1913. Oscar Leonard, "Family Desertion." 
 
70 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 New Hampshire: 
 
 1912. Family Desertion. Discussion. 
 
 1913. Family Desertion. Discussion. 
 
 New Jersey: 
 
 1909. Family Desertion. Discussion. 
 
 New York: 
 
 1910. Mary Breed, "Difference of Treatment of Widows and of Deserted 
 Wives." 
 
 Pennsylvania: 
 
 1910. Bonsall and Sharp, "Desertion and Non-Support." 
 
 1912. Wm. H. Baldwin, "Family Desertion and Non-Support Laws in Penn- 
 sylvania." 
 
 Rhode Island: 
 
 1913. Wm. H. Baldwin, "The Broadening Question of Non-Support." 
 
 Texas: 
 
 1912. Family Desertion. Discussion. 
 
 1914. Family Desertion. Discussion. 
 
 II. CITY ORGANIZATIONS. 
 Boston: 
 
 1901. Zilpha D. Smith, "Deserted Wives and Deserting Husbands: a study 
 of 234 families based on the experience of the district committees and 
 agents of the Associated Charities of Boston." Publication No. 75 of 
 the Associated Charities. 
 
 1910. "A Study of Non-Supporting Husbands." Thirty-first Annual Report, 
 Publication No. 89 of the Associated Charities. 
 
 New York City: 
 
 1911. Mrs. William Einstein, "Keeping Together of Families." 
 
 Philadelphia: 
 
 1903. "Wife Desertion." Report of a special committee of the Philadelphia 
 Society for Organizing Charity. 
 
 1913. Family Desertion. Vol. VI, No. 11, Bulletin of the City Club of 
 Philadelphia, February 12, 1913, contains the following: 
 
 Mrs. Louis C. Madeira, "What Family Desertion Costs the Community in 
 
 Dependent Children, Family Poverty, and Dollars." 
 
 Michael Francis Doyle, "Causes of Family Desertion." 
 
 Wm. H. Baldwin, "The Movement to Prevent Family Desertion." 
 
 Max Herzberg, "How the Jewish Charities Are Dealing With the Prob- 
 lem." 
 
 Eugene C. Bonniwell, "Proposed Legislation in Pennsylvania." 
 
 Pittsburgh: 
 
 1910. Ward Bonsall: Report on Desertion and Non-Support Laws. 
 
 Washington: 
 
 1904. Wm. H. Baldwin, "Family Desertion and Non-Support Laws: a study 
 of the laws of the various states made in connection with the Associated 
 Charities of Washington, D. C." (Published in the volume with Miss 
 Lillian Brandt's Five Hundred and Seventy-four Deserters and Their 
 Families.) 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 71 
 
 III. NATIONAL DESERTION BUREAU. 
 
 1912. Monroe M. Goldstein: Report of the 852 cases of family desertion 
 treated by the National Desertion Bureau from its establishment, Feb- 
 ruary 1, 1911, to April 1, 1912. 
 
 1915. Monroe M. Goldstein, "Family Desertion and Non-Support." Report 
 of the National Desertion Bureau for three years, 1912-1915. 
 
 IV. SPECIAL PAPERS AND STUDIES. 
 
 1905. Lilian Brandt, Five Hundred and Seventy-four ^Deserters and Their 
 Families. Publication No. 1 of the Committee on Social Research of the 
 Charity Organization Society of the City of New York. 
 
 1909. James R. Motion, "Desertion Cases." Two pamphlets published by 
 the Glasgow, Scotland, Parish Council. June, 1909: Memorandum 
 and Report by the Inspector of Poor. October, 1909: Supplementary 
 Memorandum and Report by the Inspector of Poor. 
 
 1911. Wm. H. Baldwin, "Must a Man, Charged in Pennsylvania with Mis- 
 demeanor on Account of Desertion or Non-Support of His Wife or Chil- 
 dren, be Tried by a Jury?" 
 
 1912. James R. Motion: Wife and Family Desertion: Emigration as a Con- 
 tributory Cause. Publication of the Glasgow, Scotland, Parish Council. 
 
 1913. James R. Motion: Wife and Family Desertion: An Inquiry into 
 its causes. Publication of the Glasgow, Scotland, Parish Council. 
 
 Charles N. Goodnow: A Xeic Laic Dealing icith Wile and Child Aban- 
 donment. Publication of the Illinois Committee on Social Legislation. 
 
 V. MAGAZINE ARTICLES. 
 
 American Journal of Sociology: 
 
 1910, July Miss S. P. Breckpnridge, "Neglected Widowhood in the Juvenilo 
 Court." 
 
 American Magazine: 
 
 1916, April Verne Dyson, "She Brings Husbands to Time." 
 
 Annals of the American Academy: 
 
 1903, March Helen Foss, "A Study of Wife Desertion." 
 
 Charities: 
 
 1903, May 2 Helen Foss, "Genus Deserter." 
 May 9 "Conference on Family Desertions." 
 
 1905, April 15 Special number on "Family Desertion." 
 
 April 22 F. E. Wade, "Family Desertion and Non-Support Laws." 
 August 19 Wm. H. Baldwin, "Child Desertion and Extradition in New 
 York." 
 
 September 9 "The National Conference and the Extradition of Deser- 
 ters." 
 
 September 16 "Extradition for Desertion as a Misdemeanor in New 
 York." 
 
 1906, March 3 Wm. H. Baldwin, "Family Desertion and Non-support Law 
 in Washington." 
 
 March 10 Wm H. Baldwin, "Interstate Rules as Applied to the Extra- 
 dition of Deserters." 
 May 26 L. K. Frankel, "Family Desertion Law." 
 
 1907, January 19 F. E. Wade, "Practical Results of the New Desertion 
 Law." 
 
 September 21 Wm. DeLacy, "Non-support Laws at the Nation's Capi- 
 tal." 
 
72 A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION. 
 
 1909, November 20 Wm. H. Baldwin, "Making the Deserter Pay the 
 Piper." 
 
 Charities Review: 
 
 1895, June "Proper Treatment of Idle or Drinking Men and Their Neglected 
 Families." 
 
 1900, October Ada Eliot, "Deserted Wives." 
 
 Collier's : 
 
 1911, August 26 A. Spadoni, "In the Domestic Relations Court." 
 
 Delineator: 
 
 1912, September W. Hard, "Fathers Who Let Their Children Starve." 
 
 1913, March, May W. Hard, "Husbands Who Resign." 
 
 Harper's Weekly: 
 
 1908, May 30 V. Rousseau, "Court of Sorrows." 
 August 8 T. E. Harry, "Repairer of Homes." 
 
 How to Help: 
 
 1905, p. 148 M. Conyngton, "Care to Needy Families: Desertion." 
 
 Jewish Charity: 
 
 1905, February Special number on "Family Desertion." 
 
 1906, January Morris D. Waldman, "Family Desertion." 
 
 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology: 
 
 1912, September Wm. H. Baldwin, "Non-support Laws and the Chicago 
 Court of Domestic Relations." 
 
 November Robert H. Gault, "In Case of Family Desertion or Non-sup- 
 port." 
 
 1913, May Wm. H. Baldwin, "Family Desertion and Extradition in Penn- 
 sylvania." 
 
 Lend a Hand: 
 
 1896, February Mary E. Richmond, "Married Vagabonds." 
 
 New Boston: 
 
 1911, March Wm. DeLacy, "Making Wife Desertion Unpopular: the Work- 
 ing of the non-support law in the District of Columbia." 
 C. C. Carstens, "Bringing the Wife Deserter to Terms." 
 
 Outlook: 
 
 1910, July 16 "Conserving the Family." 
 
 Survey : 
 
 1910, February 5 Wm. DeLacy, "Family Desertion and Non-support." 
 
 1911, July 1 F. H. McLean, "New Views on Desertion." 
 
 1912, May 11 "Bureau for Husband Finding." 
 June 22 "Family Desertion in Manitoba." 
 
 1913, April 12 "The Family Deserter Brought to Book." 
 June 21 "Probation ^for all Emigrant Husbands." 
 
 1914, December 19 "The Deserted." 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY; :;. . :.' 73 
 
 VI. MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 1889. The United States Department of Labor, A Report on Marriage and 
 Divorce in the United States, 1861-86. Statistics of divorces granted on 
 grounds of desertion. Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner. 
 
 1904. E. T. Devine, "Family Desertion." Principles of Relief, chap. xi. 
 
 1909. The United States Census Bureau, A Special Report on Marriage 
 and Divorce, 1861-1906. Statistics of divorces granted on grounds of 
 desertion; and legislation where desertion is made grounds for divorce 
 or legal separation. S. N. D. North, Director. 
 
 1910. Frederic Almy, Relief: A Primer for the Family Rehabilitation Work 
 of the Buffalo Charity Organization Society. Contains a brief state- 
 ment of policy of treatment of deserted wives. 
 
 1912. E. T. Devine, "Inefficiency and Desertion," The Family and Social 
 icork," chap. vi. 
 
 1913. Cincinnati Juvenile Protective Association. A study of the Deser- 
 tion problem in Cincinnati. (Unpublished.) 
 
 1914. Chicago Juvenile Protective Association. A study of two hundred 
 cases from the Chicago Court of Domestic Relations with respect to 
 abandonment, conducted by G. A. Michell. (Unpublished.) 
 
 Chicago Jewish Aid Society. A study of one hundred desertion cases 
 aided by the society, conducted by Miss Ella Kahn. (Unpublished.) 
 
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