"Throw the Bums Out"

[Shapiro, Fred]

Someone asked me today about the origin of the phrase "throw the bums out."  This is an important political expression, but in a few minutes of research I don't see it in The Yale Book of Quotations or the OED or Safire's Political Dictionary.  I haven't yet run it through the databases.  Is anyone able to supply any information about early uses?

Fred Shapiro

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