the attachment and make the home more attractive, at the end of which time it was felt that the home was stable enough to need no further supervision.

For reasons of convenience we may include here the causal relations between venereal disease and desertion.  In so far as syphilis brings about mental and physical deterioration, the relation between the two is obvious.  The presence of the disease in the man, if known to his wife, may lead her to sever relations with him in self-protection, and this severance, in turn, may lead ultimately to desertion or complete separation.  Often separation is desirable, but the syphilitic who is on the whole a good family man raises some of the most difficult questions with which the social worker has to deal.  Whether to try to force him out of the home and thus make an unwilling deserter; whether to violate the diagnosis given in confidence by passing it on to the wife for her protection—­these are only two of the puzzles that may arise.

The relation of alcoholism to non-support and desertion is too well known to require discussion.  The causative relation between alcohol and desertion is so direct that it probably ought not to be included under contributory causes at all.  As it is an active poison to the cells of the nervous system, it may bring about deteriorations of mind and character that are directly to blame for such anti-social acts as desertion.  The same is true in less degree of the use of narcotics; though drug habits are far less common in connection with desertion than alcoholism.  What relation drugs and alcohol will hold to desertion after July 1, 1919, remains to be seen.  Alcoholism in the woman is, however, a real contributory factor, and one frequently met with.  The experience of social workers leads them to believe that alcohol is more devastating in its effects on character with women than with men, and that there is less hope of a cure.  The great majority of so-called “justifiable deserters” are the husbands of alcoholic women.

Gambling in its effect on family income will be discussed in connection with non-support, to which it bears a much more direct relation than to desertion.  In its degenerative effect upon character it may have, however, a real causal relation to the latter.

The habit of desertion itself is a degenerative one, not only upon the deserter but upon his home.  The “intermittent husband” often weakens and demoralizes his wife in almost the same ratio as his own progress down-hill.

CONTRIBUTORY FACTORS IN THE COMMUNITY

1.  Interference of Relatives.—­The tendency of relatives to take sides against their “in-laws” is a matter of everyone’s observation.  It is frequently found as a serious factor in desertion.  Many case stories which will be used in the following chapters to illustrate other points show also the harmful interference of relatives in what might otherwise have been a fairly