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Page 10
Another way in which the community may affect the popular conception of
marriage is in the administration of civil marriage. Lack of care in
enforcing the laws and lack of gravity in performing the ceremonies may
have a decided reaction on respect for those laws and for the
institution itself. Similarly, the administration of divorce laws may
affect the popular conception of marriage. One entire neighborhood
condoned the situation in which a deserted wife immediately went to live
with another man, on the ground that "if they had been rich, they could
have got a divorce."
4. Lack of Proper Recreation.--This may seem a subject to be
discussed under personal factors; but proper recreation, after all,
depends in large measure upon what the community provides or makes
available. The American tendency for the man to get his recreation apart
from his family, in saloons and social clubs, is responsible for many
family maladjustments. Any change in family habits of recreation which
means that the man and wife enjoy fewer things together is a danger
signal the seriousness of which is not always appreciated. Social
workers are inclined to undervalue not only the influence of faulty
recreation as a factor in family breakdown, but also the possibilities
of good recreation as an aid in family reconstruction.
5. Influence of Companions.--As a factor in desertion this is closely
connected with the two just discussed. Neighborhood standards, as they
affect individuals, are apt to be transmitted through the small group
that stands nearest, and a man's companions have the freest opportunity
to influence him during their common periods of recreation. The
influence of companions is not often met as a force deliberately exerted
to bring about desertion; but, on the other hand, a man's own mental
contrast between his condition and that of his unmarried companions
often plays a definite part in his decision to desert, if he has begun
to yearn for freedom. The influence of companions is particularly
connected with the "wanderlust" type of desertion.
6. Expectation of Charitable Relief.--It used to be held that many men
who would otherwise remain at home and support, might be encouraged to
desert if they had reason to believe that their wives and families would
be cared for in their absence. This was no doubt often the case before
social workers had learned to discriminate in treatment between deserted
wives and widows, or to press with vigor the search for deserting men.
At present, it is the experience of social workers that few men
deliberately reckon upon transferring the burden of their family's
support to others, or are induced by these considerations to leave.[14]
* * * * *
In trying to determine the cause for any given desertion it is well to
keep in mind from the beginning that there is probably more than one,
and that the obvious causes that first appear are almost certain
themselves to be the effects of more deeply underlying causes. A young
vaudeville actor of Italian parentage married a Jewish girl, a cabaret
singer, and took her home to live with his parents. Was his subsequent
desertion to be ascribed to difference in nationality and religion, to
interference of relatives, to irregular and unsettling occupation, or to
a combination of all three? Would all marriages so handicapped turn out
as badly? If not, what further factors entered to lower the threshold of
resistance to disintegration in this particular case?
This last question is after all the most important one of the foregoing
series. It is one which the social case worker must never be content to
leave unanswered.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] All names of deserters given throughout the text are pseudonyms.
[7] For an excellent discussion of the process of rationalization see
The Psychology of Insanity, Bernard Hart, Cambridge University Press,
1914.
[8] For a thoughtful discussion of this point see Eubank, E.E.: A Study
of Family Desertion. Chicago Department of Public Welfare, 1916.
[9] Brandt, Lilian: Family Desertion. The Charity Organization Society
of New York City, 1905.
[10] For a fuller discussion of forced marriages, see p. 92 sq.
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