In 1910, the National Conference of Commissions on Uniform State Laws approved the Uniform Desertion and Non-Support Act. The act made it a punishable offense for a spouse to desert, willfully neglect, or refuse to provide for the support and maintenance of the other spouse in destitute or necessitous circumstances, or for a parent to fail in the same duty to their child less than 16 years of age. The 1910 act sought to improve the enforcement of the duties of support, but it did not take into account husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers who fled the jurisdiction. With the increasing mobility of the population, welfare departments had to support the destitute families because the extradition process was inefficient and often unsuccessful.