An attempt will be made in this small book 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