![]() ![]() “You’re a humbug,” shouts the Scarecrow, and this is the core of Baum’s message. But he is a common man who can rule only by deceiving the people into thinking that he is more than he really is. But soon the Wizard is revealed to be a fraud-only a little old man “with a wrinkled face” who admits that he’s been “making believe.” “I am just a common man,” he says. ![]() To Dorothy, he is a disembodied head to the Cowardly Lion he is a predatory beast to the Woodman, a glowing ball of fire. When they finally get to Emerald City and meet the Wizard, he, like all good politicians, appears to be whatever people wish to see in him. Together they go off to Emerald City (Washington) in search of what the wonderful Wizard of Oz (the President) might give them. Next Dorothy meets the Cowardly Lion, an animal in need of courage (Bryan, with a loud roar but little else). The Tin Woodman’s real problem, however, is that he doesn’t have a heart (the result of the dehumanizing work in the factory that turned men into machines).įarther down the road Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, who is without a brain (the farmer, Baum suggests, doesn’t have enough brains to recognize what his political interests are). Along the way on the yellow brick (gold) road, she meets a Tin Woodman who is “rusted solid” (a reference to the industrial factories shut down during the depression of 1893). In the movie, Dorothy begins her journey through the Land of Oz wearing ruby slippers, but in the original story Dorothy’s magical slippers are silver. In the story, Dorothy is swept away from Kansas in a tornado and arrives in a mysterious land inhabited by “little people.” Her landing kills the wicked witch of the East (bankers and capitalists), who “kept the munchkin people in bondage.” ![]() Dorothy represents Everyman the Tin Woodman is the industrial worker, the Scarecrow is the farmer, the Cowardly Lion is William Jennigs Bryan, the Wizard is the President, the munchkins are the “little people” and the Yellow Brick Road is the gold standard. Oz is the abbreviation for ounce, the standard measure used for gold. Although “Oz,” was written and published (with great success) as a children’s fantasy, Baum clearly had Populism’s misfortune in mind. But the Populists rapidly faded from the political scene as prosperity returned under McKinley and as politicians like Teddy Roosevelt adopted some of their positions.īaum, who edited a weekly paper in South Dakota before moving to Chicago in 1896, lamented the decline of the alliance between the farmer and urban worker and the subsequent decline of the party. Their standard-bearer Bryan (famed for the speech in which he accused the banks of crucifying the farmer on a “cross of gold”) lost to Republican candidate William McKinley by only 95 electoral votes. The presidential election of 1896 proved to be the high-water mark for the party. In the congressional elections of 1894, the Populists drew almost 40% of the vote. The Populist cause grew during the severe economic depression of 1893 when farm prices plummeted and unemployment soared. The Populist Party was headed by one of America’s greatest orators, William Jennings Bryan it proposed government ownership of railroads and other industries and advocated moving off the gold standard to silver-backed currency. When urban workers joined the alliance with farmers, the Populists became a viable force in American politics, aligning themselves with the Democratic Party. Centered primarily in Midwestern farming communities, the Populist Party challenged banks, railroads and the Eastern elites, which were seen as keeping the farmer down through low prices for agriculture, high freight charges and high farm debt, and through upholding the gold standard for currency, which kept interest rates up and money tight. The Populist movement grew as a reaction to the changes brought about by industrialization. Written in the waning days of the Populist movement of the late 1800s, it was the story of the sad collapse of Populism and the issues upon which the movement was based. As conceived and written by Lyman Frank Baum in 1900, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was a political allegory of turn-of-the-century America. But “The Wizard of Oz” was, and is, much more than a children’s fantasy. Dorothy and Toto, the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and the Wicked Witch of the West, are all magical figures out of one of America’s most loved movies. ![]()
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