Broken Homes

Broken Homes

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Broken Homes, by Joanna C. Colcord
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Title: Broken Homes A Study of Family Desertion and its Social
Treatment
Author: Joanna C. Colcord
Release Date: March 20, 2005 [EBook #15420]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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SOCIAL WORK SERIES BROKEN HOMES
A STUDY OF FAMILY DESERTION AND ITS SOCIAL
TREATMENT
By JOANNA C. COLCORD
SUPERINTENDENT OF THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION
SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
NEW YORK RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 1919

COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION
WM F. FELL CO PRINTERS PHILADELPHIA

PREFACE
No less thoughtful a critic of men and manners than Joseph Conrad has
remarked recently that a universal experience "is exactly the sort of
thing which is most difficult to appraise justly in the individual
instance." The saying might have been made the motto of this book, for
in its pages Miss Colcord--with all the eagerness of the newer school of
social workers, bent upon understanding, upon making
allowances--seeks that just appraisal to which Conrad refers. Marital
infelicities and broken homes are not universal, fortunately, but some
of the human weaknesses which lead to them are very nearly so.
To one who brings a long perspective to any theme in social work,
Broken Homes suggests the successive stages through which the art of
social case work has progressed. Twenty years ago the editor of this
Series was responsible for the following sentences in an annual report:
"One of our most difficult problems has been how to deal with deserted
wives with children.... One good woman, whose husband had left her
for the second time more than a year ago, declared often and
emphatically that she would never let him come back. We rescued her
furniture from the landlord, found her work, furnished needed relief,
and befriended the children; but the drunken and lazy husband returned
the other day, and is sitting in the chairs we rescued, while he warms
his hands at the fire that we have kept burning."
The passage belongs to the first and what might be termed the
"muddling along" period of dealing with family desertion, but the fact
that boards of directors actually were willing to print such frank
statements about their own shortcomings was a sign that the period was
drawing to a close.
This first stage was succeeded by a disciplinary period, in which
earnest attempts were made to enact laws that would punish the
deserter and aid in his extradition whenever he took refuge across a
state line. Laws of the strictest, and these well enforced, seemed for a
while the only possible solution.

Then gradually, with the unfolding of a philosophy and a technique of
helping people in and through their social relationships, a new way of
dealing with this ancient and perplexing human failing was developed.
This third way involved a more careful analysis of relationships and
motives, a greater variety in approach, an increased flexibility in
treatment, a new faith, perhaps, in the re-creative powers latent in
human nature. But it is unnecessary to enlarge upon a point of view
which these pages admirably illustrate. Desertion laws continue to
serve a definite purpose, as Miss Colcord makes clear, but no longer
are they either the first or the second resort of the skilful probation
officer, family case worker, or child protective agent.
Just after the Russell Sage Foundation published a treatise on Social
Diagnosis two years ago, a number of letters came to the author urging
that a volume on the treatment of social maladjustments in individual
cases follow. But this second subject is not yet ready for the large
general treatise. A topic so new as social case treatment must be
developed aspect by aspect, preferably in small, practical volumes each
written by a specialist. This is such a volume, and Miss Colcord breaks
new ground, moreover, in that her book illustrates the whole present
trend of social work as applied to individuals.
Grateful acknowledgment should be made to the social case workers
who have furnished valuable contributions to the body of data gathered
for the present study. Miss Colcord wishes mention made of her
especial indebtedness to Miss Betsey Libbey, Miss Helen Wallerstein
and Miss Elizabeth Wood of Philadelphia; Mr. C.C. Carstens and Miss
Elizabeth Holbrook of Boston; Mrs. A.B. Fox and Mr. J.C. Murphy of
Buffalo; Miss Caroline Bedford of Minneapolis; Mr. Stockton
Raymond