for his
family are danger signals in the man, of which it is well to keep
track."

The conditions listed in Chapter II as "contributory factors" might in
certain combinations be decided danger signals of impending desertion.
Non-support itself is, indeed, one of the most common of such signals,
though a man who has dealt with hundreds of desertion cases maintained
recently that the best and most hopeful type of deserter is the one who
supports his family adequately up to the time of leaving home.

In the following case the items that led the case worker to suspect an
approaching desertion are set down in the order stated by her. The
couple were Irish; the man had never deserted before.

(1) He had spoken with eagerness of the wages that were being earned
in munition plants in a city a few hours away--said he would like to
go to some of those munition places and see what he could make.

(2) He was an intermittent drinker.

(3) His work record was poor; employers said he was irregular and
unreliable.

(4) Visitor felt he had never earned as much as he was easily
capable of earning and was rather indifferent to the needs of his
family.

(5) The woman was willing to work--had applied for day nursery care,
but visitor had persuaded the nursery not to accept the children.

After the visitor had stated the first two of the above items she
stopped, and did not add the more significant three that followed until
reminded that many workmen who drank intermittently were at that time
thinking enviously of munition factory wages; and that these hardly
constituted danger signals. The cumulative effect of all five items
cannot, however, be denied.

Another statement, similarly obtained, concerns a colored couple,
married about two years and with two children, the youngest less than a
month old. Man had been out of work and family had gone to live with
relatives.

(1) Man earns $20 a week but refuses to start housekeeping again,
although they are seriously overcrowded--seven adults and five
children in five rooms.

(2) Woman says he makes her sleep on chairs so that he can get
better rest.

(3) He is seeing a good deal of another woman, a friend of the wife
(wife's statement only).

(4) Woman had applied for nursery care for both children so that she
might go to work.

(5) It transpires that she lived with him before marriage, and tha