Broken Homes | Page 4

to analyze some causal
factors in the problem of the deserter, to touch upon recent changes in
the attitude of social workers toward deserted families, to present
illustrations from the best discoverable practice in the treatment of
desertion, and to suggest certain possible next steps, both on the legal
and on the social side. For lack of space, it will be impossible to
consider the closely related problems of the deserting wife, the
unmarried mother, or the divorced couple. It is assumed throughout that
the reader is familiar with the general theory of modern case work; and
no more is here attempted than to give a number of suggestions which

will be found to be practical, it is hoped, when the social worker deals
with the home marred and broken by desertion, or when he seeks to
prevent this evil by such constructive measures as are now possible.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Philadelphia Society for
Organizing Charity, p. 25.
[2] Goodsell, Willystine: The Family as a Social and Educational
Institution, p. 8. New York, The Macmillan Co., 1915.
[3] Byington, Margaret F.: Article on "The Normal Family," Annals of
the American Academy of Political and Social Science, May, 1918.
[4] Bosanquet, Helen: The Family, p. 342. London, Macmillan & Co.,
1906.
[5] Frost, Robert: North of Boston, p. 20. New York, Henry Holt & Co.,
1915.

II
WHY DO MEN DESERT THEIR FAMILIES?
"Before the deserter there was a broken man," said a district secretary
who has had conspicuous success in dealing with such men. By this
characterization she meant not necessarily a physical or mental wreck,
but a man bankrupt for the time being in health, hopes, prospects, or in
all three; a man who lacked the power or the will to dominate adverse
conditions, who had allowed life to overcome him. Such an unfortunate
may not be conscious of his own share in bringing about the difficulties
in which he finds himself, but he is always aware that something has
gone seriously wrong in his life. His grasp of this fact is the one sure
ground upon which the social worker can meet him at the start.
We should distinguish between the causes that bring about a given
desertion, and the conscious motives in the mind of the deserter. It is
well for the social worker to make the latter the starting point in dealing
with the man, accepting the most preposterous as at least worthy of
discussion. The absconder is often too inarticulate and ill at ease to give
a clear picture of what was in his mind when he went away. If he was
out of work, it may have been a perfectly sincere belief that he would
find work elsewhere, or perhaps only a speculative hope that he might.
(These are not in the beginning genuine desertions, but often become so
later on.) It is possible that, beset by irritations and perplexities, the

thought of cutting his way out at one stroke from all his difficulties
made an appeal too strong to be resisted. Or perhaps he flung out of the
house and away, in a passion of anger and jealousy which later
crystallized into cold dislike. The spell of an infatuation for another
woman might well have been the cause; or he may have been mentally
deranged through alcohol. Simple weariness of the burden which he has
not strength of body or mind to carry and ought never to have assumed
is one attitude to be reckoned with, and failure to realize or in his heart
accept the binding nature of his obligations is another.
His temperamental instability may have been such that the desire for a
change--the "wanderlust"--was driving him to distraction. Or perhaps,
under the urge of his own subconscious feeling of failure, he may have
convinced himself that if he could "shake" the old environment and all
in it that hampered him, he could take a fresh start and make good. "If I
could only get to California," sighed Patrick Donald,[6] "I have a
feeling things would be different." With too much imagination to be
content with the situation in which he found himself, Donald had not
imagination enough to realize that he would have to take his old self
with him wherever he went, and that he might better fight things out
where he stood. Men of his sort yearn constantly for the future, not
realizing that in its truest sense the present is the future.
Only in rare instances will the deserter accept the entire responsibility
for his act. To try to find justification for doing what we want to do is
characteristic of human beings, and the deserter is no exception. He
attempts to "rationalize" his conduct and so regain his sense of
self-approval and well-being