Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-10-03
The Wife Deserters.

Away down South, in the Lone Star
state. is a red hot Democratic contem-
porary. a newspaper that believes in
the necessity of booze, etc.,-the Hous-
ton Post. But there are topics on
which our Texas friend uses forceful
language which we are pleased to en-
dorse. We offer the following editori-
al from our exchange as a case in
point:
The next legislature Will prove indif-
ferent to the rights OF society and the
cause of civilization itself if it fails
to do something that will effectually
deal with the wife deserters of this
State Almost every day the newspa-
pers tell of women and children de-
serted by trifing husbands who weary
of the task of caring for their depend
ents. In Sundays Post appeared a
story from Dallas of woman with
two babies who complained that her
husband had contributed but 20 cents
in three weeks for the support of his
family In Houston a woman with two
children told the police how she was
utGcI tto liGIt by litA
These cases are not exceptional.
They apperr with startling frequency
in the press, and yet the eases which
become public are scarcely a 1.-THE of
the assertions which happen.
The man who marries woman and
shirks the obligation to support her
merely because the task becomes bur
densome is both a coward and a
scoundre. and the law should pun
ish him or compel him to comply with
his obliga tons. To say that these do
mestic troubles are none of the state S
business will rot do When women and
children are thus cast adrift, society
is compelled to take up the burden,
and society has the right to protect it
self against burdens which it is the
duty of ableboded men to bear.
| Wife desertion is common in Texas
and elsewhere simply because the law
takes inadequate oognizanee of IT. Ii
| the law were to regard wife desertion
in the proper light and treat wife de-
serters with adequate severity, I'M
provement of conditions would be I'M
mediately Forthcoming. Nor is deser-
ton the only offense which trifiing
men commit against their families.
Too frequently, ablebodied loafers
compel their frail consort TO support
them, an injury which is even more
disreputable than desertion. Hous-
ton woman had to have her husband
arrested in order to recover SIS she
had earned at the washtub. and which
he had forcibly taken from her. An
other told the chief of police she was
supporting her children at the wash
tub. while her husband contributed
nothing to her support.
The legislature has in the past en-
deayored to treat this growing evil,
hut the law was not skillfully writ
ten. What is needed is a statute that
viii reach all such cases of delinquen-
ey and make the offending husband
come to law and perform his duty ike
a man and where the delinquent Hees
to other States, he should be brought
back and made to answer.
For the man who through illness OF
misfortune becomes incapacltated 70
suppert his wife and children, soeiety
has only sympathy and help, but the
lazy rascals who jump their domestc
obligations because they encounter the
difticulties which are the lot of most
men have right to neither liberty nor
leisure and they should be handled
with the measure of severity necessary
to bring them to a proper sense OIL
duty. Society is burdened enough with
the task of caring for the SICK ana
helpless without having TO shoulder
the tasks of ablebodied men Who' pe-
ref of a sense of decency or self-re-
enect deliberately leave their farf1i-
lies penniless or who loai apoul tH9
city and eat the bread that IS eafleu
by wives who drudged scahty sup
port at the washtub.