One case worker comments on the relation that often exists between an inefficient husband and an unusually competent wife, made up of a motherly toleration on her side and a tacit acceptance on his that he is not expected to be the provider.  “Sort of a landlady’s husband” was the apt description of one such man, the speaker having in mind the “silent partner” who does odd jobs around his wife’s furnished-room house.  The lovable old rascal portrayed by Frank Bacon in his play “Lightnin’” is typical of this kind of husband.

There is no ground for outside interference in such an arrangement as long as both are satisfied and the family as a unit is self-supporting.  It is often a serious problem to the case worker, however, to know how to treat such a family if the breadwinner-wife becomes incapacitated.  Such was the case when Mrs. Laflin fell ill with tuberculosis.  Her relatives described her husband as “that little nonentity of a man.”  He had no bad habits and was pathetically eager to work, but though only a little over fifty he was prematurely aged and incapable.  The solution had finally to be institutional care for the entire family, Mrs. Laflin in a hospital for incurables, Mr. Laflin in a home for the aged, and their two young daughters, through the interest of a former employer, in a good convent school.  “Uncomplicated” non-support, as in the case of Mr. Laflin, is, however, rare in the experience of the social worker.

Out of a group of 51 non-supporters selected at random from the records of the Buffalo Charity Organization Society in 1917, 46 showed some serious moral fault other than non-support.  Alcoholism is probably the commonest of these complications; and, as has been pointed out in the previous chapter, is probably a primary cause as well.  It will be a matter of great interest to social workers whether the “non-support rate” is reduced after July 1, 1919.  Grounds for hope that it may be are found in the fact that some remarkable results have been obtained by moving alcoholic non-supporters and their families from “wet” into “dry” territory.

Another vice that has a direct relation to non-support (much more direct than to desertion) is gambling.  The gambler carries no signs of his vice upon his person as does the inebriate, and it is therefore hard to detect.  It undoubtedly does not appear in social case records as frequently as it should.  Case workers should have it in mind as a possible explanation, whenever there is a marked discrepancy between what a non-supporter earns and what he contributes to the home.

With the non-supporters rather than with the deserters should be put the group of men whose wives tire of supporting them and either put them out or leave them.  These men are often not only morally, but mentally and physically, so handicapped that there is nothing to be gained by constantly pursuing and arresting them, although some wives extract the sweets of revenge from doing just this.  Few courts of domestic relations are without some wives as regular patrons who pursue their husbands not for gain but for sport.  For the most part, however, the wives of such men are philosophical.  “I only wash for meself now,” said one of them.