FOOTNOTES: 

[46] Now changed to The National Conference of Social Work.

[47] Motion, J.R.:  Wife and Family Desertion:  Emigration as a Contributory Cause.  Glasgow Parish Council, 1912.

[48] Handling of Cases by the Juvenile Court and Court of Domestic Relations of the Philadelphia Municipal Court.  Bulletin 2, Bureau for Social Research, the Seybert Institution, Philadelphia, 1918.

[49] Hoffman, Charles W.:  The Domestic Relations Court and Divorce, The Delinquent, February, 1917.

[50] For a fuller discussion of equity powers see an article by Judge C.F.  Collins in the Legal Aid Review for January, 1919.

[51] Hoffman, Charles W.:  Domestic Relations Courts and Divorce. The Delinquent, February, 1917.

X

NEXT STEPS IN PREVENTIVE TREATMENT

At this time of writing it is too soon after the signing of the armistice to make predictions as to what the Great War may do to marriage.  Whether desertion and divorce will increase or decrease it is impossible to say, and the experience of Europe is beside the mark.  The war will leave traces on this generation—­no doubt about that; but our losses have not been heavy enough seriously to disturb the balance of the sexes.  The war, which has been to the common people of our country a war of service and ideals, has erased much that was petty and selfish; it has also caused nervous shocks and strains incalculable and unimagined.  Years from now we may be able to strike the balance, but today this cannot be done.  It is impossible also to say whether the growing irresponsibility that was generally recognized to be threatening married life in the years before the war is still operating with like effect, or whether the full tide of emotion in which the world has been lately submerged may have swept at least a part of it away.

We are dealing here, however, not so much with modifications in the spirit of the times, as with prevention in the individual case.

One very fundamental claim can be made concerning marital shipwrecks; namely, that the way to prevent many of them would have been to see that the marriage never was allowed to take place.  Marriage laws and their enforcement form a whole subject in themselves which is now receiving careful study, the results of which should be available shortly.[52] This fact precludes any discussion of the subject here, though the relation of our marriage laws to marital discord is so obvious that some mention of the matter is necessary.