Word: shiftlessness
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...Typical was the story of Widow Anna Eickleberry who had lived in Baca County 26 years. She voiced the perennial complaint of the Drought belt: shiftless farmers who have long since lost everything get Federal relief, but hard-working farmers can get no aid to keep them from destitution...
Florida has more than its fair share of aged, penurious Yankees, of shiftless, malarial "Crackers." Hence of all States in the Union Florida is one of the most rabidly Townsendite. In its regular Democratic primary this year to select five Representatives, three of them turned out to be Townsendites. Nominated without opposition for the seat of the late Senator Duncan U. Fletcher was young, aggressive Claude Pepper, charter member of Townsend Club No. 1 of Tallahassee...
...white trash are authentic but attractive. Old Man Roper, unregenerate patriarch, had fathered a rascally and shiftless brood. Thomas lived off in the swamp by himself, distilling shinny and drinking what he did not have to sell. Bart had not been improved by going to the War. He got a half-wit girl in trouble, killed her father and pinned the murder on her. Only decent ones in the family were Rachel, who took good care of Old Man Roper and her pining sisters, and Cully, her half-nephew, who liked engines, planned to be a mechanic...
With this story incident as a prolog, the picture takes up the story of the Glourie clan on the contemporary scene, when the only member of it left is young Donald Glourie (Robert Donat). A shy, shiftless, personable young man, he lives alone in Glourie Castle waiting for someone who, by purchasing it, will free him from his creditors. When the purchasers-a U. S. chain-store proprietor (Eugene Pallette), his nervous wife and their pretty daughter (Jean Parker)-appear, Glourie Castle is moved piecemeal to Florida. The ghost goes with it. His penchant for crudely old-fashioned kissing games...
...ignorance of what is happening. Those who oppose it do so because they . . . are cognizant of what is going on. . . . I wonder about the social security of any or all of us when the Government penalizes thrift, ability and industry; and seems to place a premium on extravagance, the shiftless, the mentally, physically and morally unfit. . . . I wonder concerning your place in history, Mr. President. Will your place in history be that of the first President . . . to raid the public Treasury for campaign funds with which to overthrow the very form of government by which you were raised to power...