It will not be unreasonable that some contribution tow ard the support of the family should be made ; but in the cities where rents and the cost of provisions are nec essarily high, it can be made to cover the entire income only in exceptional cases. The increase in the number of occupations open to women has enabled many to pass from the ranks of the ordinary wage-earners to the more skilled and professional vocations in which hours of duty are lower and remuneration higher. Applications for relief are rare from those who are engaged in these higher occupations, and when they do occur are usually to be attributed to illness or to some exceptional misfortune.
What has been said of the normal deficiency in income applies only to the widow with dependent children who has no profession or skilled trade, and whose husband has made no effective provision for her support. The deserted family presents problems distinct from those involved in the relief of widows, and these will be considered in another chapter. After a long separation, or one that is likely to be permanent, and after due efforts at reconcilia tion or prosecution, as the case may require, the deserted wife with dependent children may sometimes properly be regarded as virtually in the position of a widow with children. Relief may be as necessary, and as fully justi fied, in the case of a deserted family as in that of a family in which the male wage-earner is disabled by illness or removed by death. This is true, however, only on condi tion that the criminal deserter is dealt with as such, and it is essential that the relief supplied shall be of such a character, and given under such conditions, as shall not encourage desertion on the part of others.
Every type of family group is encountered in the ex• amination of the records of charitable societies. The proportions, however, vary in different cities, and in the same community they vary with changes in industrial conditions. Widows, deserted families, aged persons, re main a less variable factor, especially in the older commu nities, and from one year to another. In the centre of migration homeless men increase in number, and in regions where there are many deaths among wage-earners in dan gerous occupations the number of widows and orphans becomes abnormally large ; but representatives of all will be found wherever an application bureau is opened, or where there is reason to believe that response will be made to appeals made to individual charity. The unity and the responsibility of the family are the first consideration in deciding upon the natural source of relief in any case, and the modifying consideration is the responsibility of the neighbor, or, more broadly expressed, the responsibility of society for relieving distress in such a manner and with such safeguards as will strengthen individual character and the feeling of responsibility on the part of the indi vidual for the welfare of those who through family or other ties have claims upon them.