Can you spare a dime lyrics

The railroad was proposed in , started in , and a new round of expansion began in It allowed for the rapid transportation of goods and people across the entire country, enabling industrial innovations that depended on long-distance shipping. But the process also exploited the labor of thousands of Chinese workers , among others.

Railroad work was extremely dangerous and generally relegated to the most marginalized workers. In , the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibiting all Chinese immigration was a real slap in the face to those who had just toiled away to build the railroad. In addition, constructing the railroads frequently involved the forceful removal of Native Americans from the land the rails were built on.

Many native tribes were decimated, and those who survived were displaced to isolated reservations with few resources. Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell Full of that Yankee-Doodly-dum Half a million boots went sloggin' through Hell And I was the kid with the drum. The khaki suit was the look for U.

The half a million boots that went "sloggin' through Hell" also refer to the boots of the U. Two million Americans fought in the war, at the time considered the greatest and most tragic war in world history, and 50, Americans died.

Yes, we know, neither of those give us the math for half a million boots—that would be , boot-wearers, right? Thankfully, the art of songwriting is not as precise as the art of historical reporting. The songwriter's point here seems to be that he fought bravely in a war, and now he's broke and struggling.

It sure doesn't seem fair, but it sure does sound familiar. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. Previous Next. The Bing Crosby recording became the best-selling record of its period, and came to be viewed as an anthem of the shattered dreams of the era. In the song a beggar talks back to the system that stole his job.

I wanted to write a song to make people think. The song asks why the men who built the nation — built the railroads, built the skyscrapers — who fought in the war, who tilled the earth, who did what their nation asked of them should, now that the work is done and their labor no longer necessary, find themselves abandoned and in bread lines.

They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob, When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was always there right on the job. Add it Here. You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me. I'm Through with Love.

The Day You Came Along. My Honey's Loving Arms. Love Thy Neighbor. Love Is Just Around the Corner. Alexander's Ragtime Band. I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams.

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