The words posted at the head of the thread are very close to the Cisco Houston set in Sing Out! 11-4. The headnote says "...MacMcClintock claimed to have written this song -- and perhaps he did." I don't know why Dick brings in Sandburg's Songbag. The short version given there ("We Are Four Bums") gives two all but identical verses:

THE GREAT AMERICAN BUM
(from Sandburg)

"We are four bums, four jolly good chums,
We live like royal Turks;
We're having good luck in bumming our chuck
God bless [to hell with] the man that works."

Sandburg's source "heard among glee club boys" doesn't really help us, but the Songbag was published 1927, when Mac (1882-1957) would have been 45. No problem there, surely?

The BC set was collected by Phil Thomas from the Lindsley brothers, principally George, at Beaton, BC 28 June 1967 runs as follows:

1: Come all ye jolly jokers now listen while I hum
A story I relate to you of the great American bum
East and west and north and south like a swarm of bees they come
They lay in the dirt and wear a shirt that's dirty and full of crumbs.

2: Now lady would you be kind enough to give me something to eat?
A piece of bread and butter or a ten-foot slice of meat
A piece of pie or a custard to tickle me under the tight
For I'm so bloody hungry and I don't know where to sleep tonight

3: Now I beat my way from Frisco Bay to the rock-bound coast of Maine
I went right into that Beaton country but I walked right out again
Now sleeping in the station, now that's a recommendation
haree harah harum

4: Oh we jolly old bums, we jolly old bums
We live like royal Turks
We have good luck at bummin' our chuck
Goddamn the man that works.

5: Now I met a man the other day I never had met before
He asked me if I wanted a job a-shoveling iron ore
I asked him what the wages was and he said, "ten cents a ton"
I said "Old fellow, go chase yourself, I'd rather be on the bum.

6: As I was sleeping in the shade just to pass the time away
A man he came to me and he said, "You want to shovel some hay?"
He said his land is rollin', I said, "If that is true
Just roll it around to a shady spot and I'll see what I can do."

7: Oh ogee ogee ogee, all we have to do
Is sleeping in the station, that's the way we do
Oh sleeping in the station, that's a recommendation
Haree harah harum.

8: Oh we jolly old bums...[as above].

Lindsley sang this song directly after singing "The Big Rock Candy Mountain."

Since these songs are Siamese twins, I'd venture that Haywire Mac recorded them both on the one disc, and when Houston recorded it he dropped the "rollin'" verse. Mac may have written both or neither, but I think he was in the hospital (to continue the metaphor) when they were born. IMHO Jon the offsider