Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1911 — WHY HUSBANDS LEAVE HOME [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WHY HUSBANDS LEAVE HOME

WHY do husbands flee from the family hearthstone? What motives Impel the wholesale desertion of homeß annually? Thousands of wives and children are deserted every year in the principal American cities. It is one of the most serious sociological problems confronting the country’s Workers in the cause c»f charities and correction and the metropolitan police authorities. The deserting husbaud and father has attained the dignity of a civic problem. He is looming up so large as an item of municipal expense that special laws are being passed to punish his offenses, special officers are being appointed to track him down and special courts being established to try his case. In New York city alone an average of 40 desertions a day are brought to the attention of the city officials. The number of cases in which the deserted families are cared for by relatives or charitable societies is beyond reckoning. Cincinnati is said to lead western cities in the number of desertions, but Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Boston, cities large and cities small, cities north and cities south, have finally discovered that the deserted family must have the aid not of church and charity workers but of the law. New York city deals with this problem in what is known as the domestic relations court, whose blunt slogan is “hring ’em together; ” and the number of divorces prevented in thp dingy court room is known only to the recording angel. “The general cussedness of the men, the incompetency of the women, the ‘other’ man or woman coming between husband and wife” —in this order do the causes of desertion run. according to officials of the court. Only the husband vows it’s all due to the Increased cost of living. “The high cost of living?" echoes the magistrate thoughtfully, in response to a question. “I don’t know —I don’t know! Of course money is what we’re after for these deserted wives and children, but there are other problems to solve here. husband may start out in married life meaning well, but he marries a girl who knows nothing about homemaking. and that is the first cause of their quarrels. Or she wants more clothes than he can buy for her —and good times. These moving picture houses have a curious fascination for married women. They admit sitting in h moving picture house hour after hour when they ought to be getting meals for their families. The moving picture show has taken the place of the cheap novel with this class of women.

“And then the girl who has earned her own living often has trouble with her husband. She is used to spending her money as she likes, and she wants to spend his the same way. Often he does not earn double what she did, and she misses her income. A man ought to consider the earning capacity of a woman bafore he marries her. The very fact that she has earned so much before marriage may make for their unhappiness. Or she may return to the store or factory rather than live on his wages. Women of this class are no longer economically dependent upon men. “In both of these cases there is hope of reconciliation. But when another woman has come between husband and wife we don’t try to bring the couple together. Then it’s simply a case of forcing the man to support his family, whether he will live with them or not” WllHam Desmond, for a score of years chief of the SL Louis detective bureau, while tn official position had constant occasion to study this problem seriously. In answer to a general inquiry of the subject, Mr. Deamond declared that moat husbands ran away because of Inability to "keep up with the procession” In Lha

social race of these twentieth century days. He characterized society as a mighty and merciless automobile, which rode down, without warning, all who happened in its path. “It is the swift pace that kills,” said the Veteran ex-chler. “That Is, the swift pace, the desire to make as good a show as one’s neighbors, or perhaps, a better one, causes the majority of the home desertions. And the greater number are not, as- most people believe, among the very poor, but rather the so-called middle class of society.”

“Among the many who look up from the ranks of the third estate there are few who suspect that the people of the middle class ever lack comforts or even want for the necessaries ot life. Yet it is a fact, that in the big American cities there are hundreds upon hundreds of husbands who are commonly supposed to be well to do, but who often scarcely know how or where the means of the family existent for the next month will come

from. It is at such times that the men forsake home, abandon wife and children, and flee away—to suicide or exile.

“There Is a generally accepted belief that husbands desert wives solely because of domestic discord or because the love of the husband has waned. It can be said in contradiction of this that while desertions do often result from such cause, the number is insignificant compared with the desertions impelled by inability of the husbands to support their families In the style they believe to be absolutely imperative by reason of their social status.

“Comparatively few men,” Mr. Dee* mond declared, "deliberately desert their wives with the intention of never being reunited; few plan to re* main away forever. Most husbands who flee from city homes recover their menUl equllibrulm and wake to a consciousness of tljeir position when they bring up amid new surroundings. Then hope revives. Then courage returns. They look around with a view to getting a new sUrt They plan to rebuild their fortunes. AU this with the ultimate object of returning to the old home and loved ones or bringing their families to them in a new home. But with many the ‘castle In Spain* plans go awry; things refuse to work out right These hapless deserters — domestic derelicts —move from one place to another. Their habits of home life are broken. They become living. Indisputable proof of the old adage that the way to destruction Is paved with good Intentions. They continue to drift Perhaps they become sick and die —anyway, they seldom 'come back.’ they take the count and are ‘out.’ and in the great roll of humanity they are recorded aa hear* less wife deserters.”

Expense Bills One Cause.