Broken Homes | Page 2

of Columbus; Mrs. Helen Glenn Tyson of Pittsburgh; Mr.
Arthur Towne of Brooklyn; Mr. E.J. Cooley, Mr. Charles Zunser, Mr.
Hiram Myers, and Miss Mary B. Sayles of New York. Many others not
here mentioned were untiring in answering questions and furnishing
needed information.
MARY E. RICHMOND Editor of the Social Work Series NEW YORK,
May, 1919.

CONTENTS
PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 7 II. WHY DO MEN DESERT THEIR

FAMILIES? 17 III. CHANGES OF EMPHASIS IN TREATMENT 50
IV. FINDING THE DESERTING HUSBAND 65 V. FURTHER
ITEMS IN THE INVESTIGATION 91 VI. THE DETAILS OF
TREATMENT 106 VII. THE DETAILS OF TREATMENT
(_Continued_) 125 VIII. THE HOME-STAYING NON-SUPPORTER
149 IX. NEXT STEPS IN CORRECTIVE TREATMENT 164 X.
NEXT STEPS IN PREVENTIVE TREATMENT 185 INDEX 201

BROKEN HOMES
I
INTRODUCTION
It has frequently been said that desertion is the poor man's divorce but,
like many epigrams, this one hardly stands the test of experience. When
examined closely it is neither illuminating nor, if the testimony of
social case workers can be accepted, is it true. It is true, of course, that
many of the causes of domestic infelicity which lead to divorce among
the well-to-do may bring about desertion among the less fortunate, but
the deserting man does not, as a rule, consider his absences from home
as anything so final and definite as divorce.
In a study of desertion made by the Philadelphia Society for Organizing
Charity in 1902,[1] it was found that 87 per cent of the men studied had
deserted more than once. The combined experience of social workers
goes to show that a comparatively small number of first deserters make
so complete a break in their marital relations that they are never heard
from again, and that an even smaller number actually start new families
elsewhere, although no statistical proof of this last statement is
available. One social worker of experience says that in her judgment
desertion, instead of being a poor man's divorce, comes nearer to being
a poor man's vacation.
A man who had always been a good husband and father was discharged
from hospital after a long and exhausting illness and returned to his
family--wife and seven children--in their five-room tenement. Ten days
later he disappeared suddenly, but reappeared some two weeks later in
very much better health and ready to resume his occupation and the
care of his family. His explanation of his apparent desertion was that he
was unable to stand the confusion of his home and "had needed rest."
He had "beaten his way" to Philadelphia and visited a friend there.

The reporter of the foregoing remarks that it illustrates "unconscious
self-therapy," and that the patient's disappearance might have been
avoided if the services of a good medical-social department had been
available at the hospital where the man was treated.
It is more difficult to justify the thirst for experience of another
deserting husband who came to the office of a family social agency
after an absence of a few months, with effusive thanks for the care of
his family and the explanation that he "had always wanted to see the
West, and this had been the only way he could find of accomplishing
it."
In fact, case work has convinced social workers that there are few
things less permanent than desertion. In itself this provisional quality
tends to create irritation in the minds of many of the profession. It is
upsetting to plan for a deserted family which stops being deserted, so to
speak, overnight. But in their understandable despair social workers
sometimes overlook essential facts about the nature of marriage. The
permanence of family life is one of the foundation stones of their
professional faith; yet they may fail to recognize certain manifestations
of this permanence as part and parcel of the end for which they are
striving. They would see no point in the practice adopted by a certain
social agency which deals with many cases of family desertion. This
society, when it has had occasion to print copies of a deserter's
photograph to use in seeking to discover his present whereabouts, often
presents his wife with an enlargement of the picture suitable for
framing. The procedure displays, nevertheless, a profound insight not
only into human nature but into the human institution called marriage.
In the next chapter will be considered some of the causes that make
men leave their homes. To deal effectively with the situation created by
desertion, however, we have need of a wider knowledge than this. Not
only what takes men away but what keeps them from going, what
brings them back, what leads to their being forgiven and received into
their homes again, are matters that seriously concern the social case
worker. What is it that makes this plant called marriage so tough of