In so far as non-support is a
pre-desertion symptom and the non-supporter a potential deserter, much
that has been said applies also to him. But are the two groups
co-terminous, or do they only partially overlap?
The law makes little difference in its treatment of the two, the fact of
failure to support being the chief ground of its interest.[40] Indeed,
in Massachusetts, the law under which deserters are extradited for
abandonment is habitually spoken of as the "non-support law."
No study of which the results are available has been made to learn what
difference, if any, exists between the non-supporter who leaves home and
the one who does not. Miss Breed, in making the point that the true
analogy of the deserted family is with the non-supported family and not
with the widow and her children, says: "The deserting husband is at home
the non-supporting husband."[41]
A case reader of experience writes: "When I look back over the many
records I have read and studied, it seems to me that it is very
difficult to draw a line between desertion and non-support cases,
either in the kind of problem they present, or in the treatment of
them. Do we know enough about non-supporters who later become
deserters; and isn't it possible that every non-support case,
certainly every beginning non-support case, is a potential desertion
case?"
There is no doubt that the two groups grade imperceptibly into each
other; but of the twenty or more case workers who were consulted in the
preparation of this material, nearly all felt that the out-and-out
deserter, if he can be got hold of, is more promising material to work
with than the man who sits about the home and lets others maintain it.
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