Broken Homes | Page 7

is a potent
cause of desertion. So also is a limited industrial equipment. Irregular
school attendance, early "working papers," a dead-end job with no
educational possibilities in it--these form a frequent background for
later unsuccess in life and in marriage.
There seemed at first no good explanation for the desertion of Alfred
West. Both his record and his wife's were good, and their mutual
fondness for the children seemed a strong bond. They constantly
bickered, however, over the small income Alfred was able to earn, and
his wife and her relatives "looked down" upon him as being lower than
they in the social scale. Inquiry into past history showed that he had
grown up in a southern community where there were no facilities for
education, and that he could not even read and write until after his
marriage. Although of average capacity, he was restricted by his early
lack of training in his choice of a job; and the mortification and sense
of inferiority which his wife fostered led to discouragement and
indifference, which ended in desertion. A thorough understanding of
the two backgrounds involved enabled a social worker to effect a real
reconciliation, with the woman's eyes opened to her ungenerous
behavior and the man taking steps to improve his education in a night
school.
6. Occupational Faults.--Closely allied to the foregoing, and in some
respects growing out of it, are the shortcomings on the employment
side that contribute to marital instability. Most of these can be referred
back to lack of education or opportunity in youth, or to defects of
character. Laziness, incompetence, lack of skill in any trade, lack of
application, or, on the other hand, the possession by a man with no
business "stake" in the community of a trade at which he can work
wherever he takes a fancy to go, or of a trade which is seasonal and
shifting--all these have a direct relation to desertion.
The wife's competence and willingness to earn often seems to have a
causal connection with the man's failure as "provider."[12]
Corresponding to and complementing the man's industrial defects, and
springing from the same causes, is the woman's failure in the business

of being a housewife. The wife's laziness, incompetence, lack of
interest, and lack of skill and knowledge create, as one case worker
puts it, "the sort of home that tends to get itself deserted." These faults
of the wife are responsible for as many desertions, probably, as are the
faults of the husband. When the man and the wife are both industrial
failures we get the extremity of family breakdown to be found in
records of "chronic non-support" cases.
7. Wanderlust.--As a cause of family desertion this has probably been
overestimated. Some item of this sort appears in every list of causes of
desertion which has ever been compiled, and there are more or less
exceptional cases in which it probably plays a part. The boy who
becomes a vagabond in childhood and early takes to the road does not,
however, seem to be a marrying man; and the instances from case work
in which it is clear that the thirst for adventure was at the bottom of
desertion are rare. The man whose line of work before marriage led him
from place to place seems, in fact, hardly to contribute his quota to the
ranks of wife-deserters, and it is unusual to find sailors or other
wanderers from force of circumstance figuring among them.
8. Money Troubles.--As has already been said, it is impossible to show
any direct relation between small incomes and desertion. The
connection between low wage and non-support is of course a great deal
closer. The inadequate income unquestionably acts indirectly to break
down family morale in much the same way as does lowered physical
vitality.
But marital discord that springs from the handling of the family
finances is another matter, and it recurs regularly in the history of what
went on prior to desertion. One deserter, traced to a southern city,
returned voluntarily and begged the assistance of the social worker
interested to reform his wife's spending habits. "I made good money
and I never opened my pay envelope on her," said he, "but the week's
wages was always gone by Thursday." Many men, however, who make
a boast of turning over unbroken pay envelopes to their wives borrow
back so much in daily advances that their net contribution is only a
fraction of their wages.

Some desertions brought about by financial difficulties are not, strictly
speaking, marital problems at all. Debts resulting from his own
extravagance or dishonesty may cause a man to leave home to escape
prosecution or disgrace. One such man kept in touch with his family,
sending money at irregular intervals for some years, but always moving
on to another