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.