Broken Homes: A Study of Family Desertion and its Social TreatmentColcord, Joanna C. (Joanna Carver)
General
Broken Homes: A Study of Family Desertion and its Social Treatment
Colcord, Joanna C. (Joanna Carver)
Desertion and non-support
Onofrio Mancini was under court order to stay away from home and pay
his wife $6.00 a week for the support of their two children, He
drove a two-horse truck, and, at that time, must have been earning
not less than $16.00 a week. Mrs. Mancini fell ill, whereupon
Onofrio promptly ceased all payments. The social agency interested
was permitted to make a complaint on producing a doctors certificate
that Mrs. Mancini could not appear in court; but Onofrio, when he
appeared, put up such a hard luck tale of earning only $8.00 a week
that the judge, without investigation, cut the order down to $4.00 a
week and _ordered Onofrio to return home to live_.
A bulletin issued by the Seybert Institution of Philadelphia gives a
very interesting set of diagrams showing the relation (or lack of
relation) between the amount of man's income, size of family, and the
court order issued in the Philadelphia Municipal Court.[48]
This report gives a series of illustrations, where glaring
inconsistencies between the man's earnings and the court order were
observed by visitors to the court. A sample of the reports made by these
visitors is as follows:
"Man earning $30 to $40 a week at ammunition factory. Can earn $20
with no overtime. Has been sending woman $10 a week but has
threatened to leave town. Judge said: 'You can't keep up $10 a
week--how much can you give?' Finally ordered $8 a week. Woman said
she couldn't live on that and Judge told her she had to go to work
herself then; that they should live together anyway. Woman says she
is unable to work--is ill. When man stated he was giving $10 great
consternation seemed to take hold of the entire court force. He did
not say he couldn't pay $10; the judge simply told him he couldn't
keep that up."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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