One present obstacle to this and other improvements is the attitude of authorities—­city, state, and federal—­toward wife desertion.  We have already mentioned the way in which the task of tracing the deserter has been thrust back upon the wife and the social worker, as if he were not an offender against the community as well as against his wife and children.  Almost as widespread is the reluctance of the proper authorities to arrest the deserter and bring him back after he has been found.  A general atmosphere of indifference and despair of accomplishing anything worth while surrounds any attempt to push the prosecution of a man who has taken refuge outside the community.  Hope for the future lies in socializing the point of view of court officials, police, and district attorneys—­a process in which the social worker must play a large part.  No chance should be lost to drive home the social and economic waste involved, by using the illustrative material which abounds in the files of most case work agencies.

The pernicious system by which the wife is required to serve summons and warrant upon the offending husband who is still in the same city, should be done away with entirely.  The social agency, public or private, which has had to support or assist the man’s family ought to be able to prefer a charge for non-support, and to take out a summons or a warrant and serve it without the wife’s being present.  The agency should in this case protect itself by securing from the wife a signed affidavit and authorization to act in her behalf.  It may seem unimportant whether the wife makes such complaint in the court or to a private society.  The psychological effect upon the man is, however, very different.  If his wife initiates the complaint in court, his resentment is directed toward her—­a fact which renders reconciliation more difficult if this is later attempted.  In other cases, for the wife to make the complaint puts her in actual physical danger from the vindictive husband.  If he is brought into court on the complaint of a social agency, part of that resentment at least is transferred to the intrusive social worker, who is not usually seriously troubled thereby and is far better able to bear the weight of the husband’s displeasure than is his poor wife.

The absence of any treaty with Great Britain by which family deserters can be extradited to or from Canada makes the Dominion a place of refuge for many American evaders of family responsibilities.  The National Conference of Charities and Correction,[46] at its meeting in Cleveland in 1912, passed a resolution on the need for such a treaty.  As a result, largely through the efforts of Mr. William H. Baldwin, the treaty was signed and sent to the Senate for ratification in December, 1916.  It was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, where it met with objection and has remained without action up to the present.  The National Conference of Jewish Charities, at its meeting in Kansas City in May, 1918, sent urgent representations to the Senate Committee, which it is hoped may result in ratification after the pressure of war-time legislation is relaxed.