in fact. The deserter is a knowing violator of the law, and while he
does not welcome it, he regards his arrest as only a question of time.
He is playing the game of 'hide and seek,' and he is applying every
trick and subterfuge to avoid detection. He is not disturbed if he has
been caught in a police trap. Our experience has been that in such cases
where he has tried to outwit the police, and the police finally have
'beaten him to the game,' he compliments his captor. This is a common
characteristic of the criminal, a sort of negative bravado, When the
deserter is arrested, all he can hope for and expect is a fair deal."
What are some concrete suggestions, developed from the experience of
case workers, as to how to proceed in searching for deserting men? A
full and careful talk with the wife is the first requisite, supplemented
by equally thorough interviews with any near relatives who can be
reached. The case worker should be familiar with the Questionnaire on
the Deserted Family in Mary E. Richmond's Social Diagnosis. A
description and if possible a photograph of the man should be procured.
Where several out-of-town clues are to be followed, copies of the
photograph can be cheaply made, and at least one bureau for dealing with
desertion cases makes this part of its routine procedure.
_Agency B._--"I have seen very few individuals in the course of my
experience who could not be brought to see the right viewpoint if they
were intelligently approached, even though the probation officer had
considerable to do with their arrest. It is in my opinion not altogether
important what occurs before the man's arrest but how he is treated
after he comes within the jurisdiction of the probation officials."
[21] See p. 69.
V
FURTHER ITEMS IN THE INVESTIGATION
It is evident that the need of finding the man strongly influences the
course of this type of investigation, especially in the early stages.
Are there other considerations, however, that modify the technique of
inquiry into these desertion cases?
There is one crisis in the lives of deserted families which is not
duplicated in the history of any other group suffering from social
disability. This crisis is the period of the first desertion. "If we
could learn what preceded and what immediately followed the first
desertion, we should know much more than we do now about how to deal
with the problem," said a case worker who has studied many court
records.
The _number_ of subsequent desertions may be both interesting and
significant, but the circumstances attending them are not nearly so well
worth study as are those connected with the critical first break. We
should go back to that spot and probe for causes. The common practice of
recording carefully what led up to a chronic deserter's last desertion
before his family applied, and of passing over his earlier desertions
with a mere mention of their number and dates, puts the emphasis in the
wrong place.
We must, however, go further back than the first desertion for a working
fund of knowledge. The importance of knowing what were the influences
surrounding the man and woman in childhood and youth has already been
dwelt upon and is so generally conceded as to need no elaboration here.
Of especial value also is careful inquiry into the period of courtship,
the circumstances of the marriage, and the history of the earlier
married life. "We should seek to know what first drew them together, as
well as what forced them apart," said a thoughtful district secretary.
The notorious unhappiness of "forced marriages" leads case workers to
scrutinize the relation between the date of marriage and the date of
the birth of the first child. It should be remembered, however, that not
all marriages which are entered into during pregnancy are forced
marriages. Studies of forced marriages, so-called, have not always taken
this fact into consideration.
The superintendent of a state department for aid to widows made a study
of the vital statistics of 500 families chosen at random. She states
that "out of these 500 mothers 96, or 19.2 per cent, had conceived out
of wedlock--or rather before wedlock--judging by the date of marriage
and that of the first child's birth. All these women were hard working;
several of good standing in the neighborhood and the mothers of large
families of children." This group of homes represents by no means an
unstable segment of the community, since in most instances the couples
had lived together in reasonable harmony up to the time of the man's
death. But do the 96 represent forced marriages as ordinarily thought of
by the social worker? The study just quoted has no facts bearing upon
this point. The likelihood is that a large number of these marriages,
termed forced, were in reality not brought about by outside pressure at
all, but that the couple were intending to be married at the time the
pregnancy occurred and that the circumstances were condoned by public
opinion in the community where the marriage took place.
The Chicago Juvenile Protective Association, however, has made a study
of 89 forced marriages which were brought about in connection with
bastardy proceedings. In this study there is no attempt to differentiate
as to the _amount_ of unwillingness that had had to be overcome on the
part of either the man or the woman. Fifty-three of the women said that
the marriage had been entered into willingly on their part. Sixty of
them stated that they were well treated by their husbands, and only five
complained of abuse or unkindness. Out of the 89 marriages brought about
after proceedings were instituted 69 of the couples were still living
together from one to two years later, although 20, or nearly one in
five, had separated before the two-year period was over.[22]
A young woman with four small children was given advice by an
associated charities about her approaching confinement, and no
further inquiry was made at that time. She was living apart from her
husband, who was contributing a small amount regularly. The income
was inadequate and it was decided to push the matter further.
Efforts to verify the marriage failed. Finally, a tactful worker was
able to learn that the ceremony had not taken place until after the
birth of the first three children, that the couple had had sexual
relations since the woman was a girl of fifteen, and that her
relatives had never known the true state of affairs. The man's
mother finally interfered, and urged her son not to live with his
wife. After much careful work, and with the assistance of a
co-operating priest, a plan was worked out which brought the couple
together and induced them to move away from the region in which the
man's parents lived.
* * * * *
A probation department tells of a case where, although the man was
unwilling to marry, a court marriage was brought about; the man made
his payments promptly and observed the other conditions of his
probation faithfully. The woman, however, was indifferent to any
efforts to bring about a reconciliation. It was finally discovered
that she was immoral. The case culminated in the securing of a
divorce by the man, who was granted the custody of the children.
The same department submits a story where good results were obtained
in subsequently reconciling, after a desertion, a couple whose
marriage had been of the forced description. The probation
department arranged for the couple to live apart in the early stage
of probationary treatment. A careful study was made of each of the
individuals, and in their sincere attachment a basis was discovered
for re-establishment of the home under the supervision of the
probation officer. Five years later the man was found to be at work
at the same position originally obtained for him by the probation
officer, his salary had been increased, the family had grown in
number and were getting on extremely well.
Although the term "forced marriage" has come to have the meaning given
above, unions can be really forced where there has been no sex relation
before marriage. In one unhappy marriage which came finally to a court
of domestic relations, the wife was a weak and timid woman who married
her husband because of her fear that he would carry out his threat and
kill her and himself if she refused him. Another, an Italian girl, was
married at fourteen by her parents against her inclinations to a
well-to-do man, much older than she, who was a lodger in the family. As
she grew to womanhood their incompatibility increased; finally, after
four children had been born, the family was broken up and the children
committed to institutions.
There are compulsions and false motives, operating to bring about
marriages, which spring from within not without; and the discovery of
any motive for the marriage except mutual inclination has significance
to the case worker. Light was thrown on the troubles of one young couple
when the girl confessed that she had married a youth for whom she had no
particular affection, in order to "spite" her relatives and assert her
right to do as she chose. And the unfortunate young woman who married a
street evangelist in a fit of religious enthusiasm, and because of his
promise that they would travel about the world saving souls together,
had a married life both short and stormy. The so-called "slacker
marriages" of the few months preceding the first draft in 1917
illustrate this point. The wreckage of these marriages is already
drifting in increasing amount to the courts of domestic relations.
One of the most important items in desertion cases, and one far too
often neglected, is the verification of the marriage. Much seeming
indifference and confusion on this point is probably caused by the
quasi-legality in many states of common law marriages. The case worker
should not forget, however, that a common law union is often only a
device on the part of one or the other of the two to avoid prosecution
for bigamy. When it is established that the marriage is a common law
union, a strong suspicion should be set up in the worker's mind that
there may be some legal barrier to a ceremony, and careful inquiry
should be directed along this line. Not only does the verification of a
marriage give the worker a sound basis on which to proceed to court
action if necessary, but the copy of the actual marriage record, where
that can be procured, gives much valuable information as to dates,
addresses, and names of relatives and witnesses. A transcript of the
record will usually be furnished by the registrar of vital statistics
in the city where the marriage took place (if in the United States) for
a nominal fee of fifty cents.
It is much more difficult to verify marriages which took place in other
countries, and social workers are often appalled by the prevalence of
the so-called "American marriage" among immigrant deserters, who trust
to our happy-go-lucky methods for protection against a prosecution for
bigamy.
Such was the case of Orfeo Pelligrini, who came to this country and
took a new wife when his children in Italy were nearly grown. His
Italian family came to America through their own efforts a few years
later, and Orfeo found that he had underestimated the character of
his eldest son, who traced his father, had him arrested and taken to
the city where his original family was living. Orfeo, now forcibly
reunited to the wife of his bosom, walks softly under the threat of
bigamy proceedings, while the "American" wife refuses to take any
action on the ground that "he didn't go away from me of his own
wish, and why should I put him behind the bars?"
* * * * *
Of an altogether more simple mental make-up was the Slovak laborer
who brought his pregnant "American wife" and two children to the
district office of a charity organization society, saying that the
relatives in Europe of Anna, his first wife, had sent Anna to this
country, and she was on the point of arriving. He added that, as
manifestly it was not possible to support two families on his wages,
he would like to provide for his second wife through "the Charity."
A district secretary who has worked for many years with Italians is
authority for the statement that marriages in Italy are always
registered at the man's legal residence, no matter where the marriage
took place. "Careful Italian parents, if they cannot get reliable
information in other ways, write to the 'paese' of a suitor for
information in regard to his conjugal condition. A marriage which takes
place in America is customarily registered with the consul for
transmission to the home town in Italy."
In some countries of Latin America great confusion may be caused by the
fact that a marriage performed in church is not legal in the eyes of the
state unless a second ceremony is gone through before the civil
authorities. A Guatemalan woman, deserted in this country, had no
recourse in law because she had had only the church ceremony in her
country. Her claim to the status of common law wife was invalidated by
the man's producing proof that he was already married at the time the
religious ceremony was performed.
Having established the fact that a legal marriage has taken place, the
case worker must keep in mind the possibility that it may have been
later dissolved. It is not at all uncommon to find that a deserter who
has gone off with another woman has started proceedings to get a divorce
by "publication." This can happen when the two have gone to a state
where such unfair divorce procedure is permitted. Publication in these
cases takes place in local newspapers which there is little or no chance
of the wife seeing; and she may later find herself a divorced woman with
no legal claim for support for herself or children, and suffering under
charges of misconduct without having had a chance of being heard. The
National Desertion Bureau found this proceeding so common an abuse that
it established a clearing bureau in its central office, and its local
representatives in different parts of the country notify this bureau as
soon as any action for divorce is started by a man with a Jewish name
against a wife whose "address is unknown."[23]
What are some of the other points at which the investigation of cases of
desertion may differ from the technique generally accepted? The
superintendent of a desertion bureau, in answer to this question, said
that he emphasized "neighborhood references" more than in the ordinary
case. Social workers have become very wary, of course, of much inquiry
among present neighbors; but where the protection of the woman or the
children is involved it is often necessary to procure the testimony of
people who live nearby or in the same house. A deserted family is
usually so much a center of neighborhood interest or sympathy, or both,
that it is easier than in some other types of cases to secure
information from neighbors, tradesmen, and so on, without augmenting
neighborhood gossip.
Probably the most difficult part of the necessary information to be
secured in desertion cases is an adequate picture of the sex
relationship between man and wife. The part which sex plays in the
causation of desertion has been touched upon in Chapter II.[24] In
getting the information from the people concerned, the case worker needs
no elaborate equipment as a psycho-analyst; but she should know enough
about sex psychology to recognize a pathological problem when she meets
it, and to be able to call on the psycho-analyst or psychiatrist for
specialized service.
The securing of an adequate picture of the sex life of the couple may
have to be delegated, however, to some volunteer whose own sex,
profession, or marital experience makes him or her a suitable person to
secure it.
"The majority of social case workers are unmarried women under
forty, and in this particular respect they frequently find
themselves handicapped by the natural reluctance of the deserter to
discuss his conceptions of the marital relation in such a way as to
be enlightening to them, as well as by the chivalrous attitude which
the woman of the tenements often adopts toward her unmarried
visitor. The decisive statement, 'You have never been married, so
you can't understand,' often proves at least a temporary barrier in
dealing with deserted wives, just as the similar statement, 'You
have never been a mother so you cannot know the feelings of one,' is
used to block her efforts in another direction. If it is found
impossible to carry on the necessary discussions rationally and
without too serious embarrassment, it is often possible to call upon
the socially-minded physician or clergyman for help along this
line."[25]
To sum up, the interviews with the family and the supplementary visits
and letters of inquiry should furnish the social worker if possible
with:
1. A clear picture of the home in which the two adult members of the
family grew up, and the factors in their early training which
contributed to their failure as husband or wife; or which can be
utilized as assets in the future plan.
2. A history of how the couple met; the events of their courtship and
marriage, including sex relations prior to marriage with spouse or
others; also previous marriages. Records of marriage, death of previous
spouse, etc., are very important and should be secured if in existence.
3. A picture of the family and its individual members in their other
social relationships--with employers, medical agencies, teachers, their
church, their friends, their relatives. Knowledge of their habits,
tastes, and characteristics, with special attention to period of first
desertion. Analysis of factors leading to the desertion.
4. History of first reconciliation (unless the present is the first
break). History of subsequent desertions. Court record, if any.
A prerequisite to some of the above information is an interview or
interviews with the man. Where this cannot be had as part of the first
investigation, the investigation should leave the worker in possession
of some good clues, at least, to the man's whereabouts.
FOOTNOTES:
[22] Bowen, Louise de K.: A Study of Bastardy Cases. Juvenile Protective
Association of Chicago, 1914.
[23] It is the policy of the Bureau, when such a case is discovered, to
help the wife get competent legal advice in the city where action is
being brought, and either to contest the case or start a counter suit.
Where necessary the woman is sent on to appear in person.
[24] See p. 37 sq.
[25] J.C. Colcord in _The Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science_, May, 1918, p. 97.
VI
THE DETAILS OF TREATMENT
As in all other problems faced by the case worker, it is impossible to
lay down general rules for the treatment of desertion. There may be
general considerations, however, which it is well to keep in mind, some
of which have been advanced in the last chapter.[26]
On questions of investigation there is closer agreement among social
workers than on questions of treatment. Personal factors here play a
much larger part, and it may very well be that two case workers who
differ in personality but are of equal ability, will choose very
different plans of treatment in a given case and yet each bring it to a
successful issue. It is with a good deal of hesitancy, therefore, that
a case worker ventures upon the discussion of anything so flexible as
treatment. In preparation for this study many consultations were had
with practising social case workers in the fields of family work,
probation, medical-social service, and child welfare. Differences of
opinion were found and this chapter will attempt to express the
composite opinion on how to treat the deserter and his family in the
different situations which confront them.
1. Man's Whereabouts Unknown but Desertion of Recent Date.--It is
better in this case to make no very definite plans for the family.
Emergent plans, both as to relief and medical or other care should, of
course, be prompt and adequate. Now is the time, if it can be done, to
win the confidence and co-operation of the wife. We should, however,
make no promises for the sake of "buying" co-operation, and give no
premature advice either as to prosecution or reconciliation. Everything
possible should be done to strengthen such ties with church, relatives,
and friends as may be helpful, but the social worker should be slow to
encourage the family to form new ties with other social agencies at this
time. She should avoid the possibility of judging the woman harshly in a
period of stress, but be watchful for signs of deterioration and
resourceful to combat them. This is the stage, of course, when all
energies should be bent toward finding the man.
In this as in the other situations about to be discussed, the question
of whether or not the home should be broken up and the children
committed should be decided on other grounds than on the desertion
alone. Under many circumstances, it is the best thing to do. The woman,
worn out with anxiety or abuse, may be unequal to their physical care
for the present; or they may be running wild and in danger of becoming
delinquent. The mother may be morally an unfit guardian, and the
desertion may furnish the long-sought opportunity to interfere for the
children's protection. Commitment may have to be planned, and the
mother's consent won, to save the children from the return of a brutal
father, against whom she cannot protect them. Or she may desire a
temporary commitment in order to give her husband a severe lesson. The
main consideration, however, ought to be what is going, in the long run,
to be best for the children concerned.
2. Man's Whereabouts Unknown, Desertion of Long Standing.--A very
different problem from the preceding may be presented in the family of a
man who disappeared some time ago. Where the desertion is bona fide and
has persisted over a period of years, it is often possible to treat the
family as if the man were dead, and, if other circumstances make this
advisable, to plan comprehensively for the future. There is always the
chance, however, that, until the man's death is established, he may turn
up unexpectedly. If living, he usually manages to hear now and again
about his family and is often able to find them at will. A man who had
neither seen nor communicated with his family during the ten years they
had been maintained by a private family agency, nevertheless sent
promptly for his wife and eldest son by a messenger who knew exactly
where to find them (although they had moved in the interval several
times), when he lay dying of alcoholic excess in the city hospital.
The laws of many states contain a provision that the marriage of a
person who has completely disappeared and not been heard from in a
period of years can be set aside by the proper authorities. This makes
legal the remarriage of the spouse. In nearly all of the states divorce
can be obtained on the ground of long continued desertion.[27] The
wisdom of advising such a divorce, however, should receive careful
individual consideration, particularly in relation to the religious
faith of the client and the attitude of that faith toward divorce.
3. Man's Whereabouts Known; Man Unwilling to Return or Support.--Many
types of deserting men are included under this catch-all heading--the
so-called "justifiable deserter;" the man who has fled to escape his
creditors or is a fugitive from justice; the man who has elected to try
life with another mate; the wandering hobo who means to come back some
sweet day but not now; the cowardly pregnancy deserter; the low-grade
irresponsible--a motley crew. They are grouped together here for
convenience, since they constitute those with whom coercive measures
have most often to be used.
A good example of the "justifiable deserter" is found in the story
of Williams.[28] This man, when home conditions became intolerable,
tried to secure his children's safety through the courts but did not
obtain a hearing. He left home feeling that he was fully justified.
The lame point in his self-defense was his failure to support his
children, and it took a court order to rectify this in part.
* * * * *