Wonderful Wizard of Oz

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Jennings Bryan poster



Alistair McConnachie writes

Prosperity, January 2001

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Chicago, 1900) is a parable about Money Reform and the 1890s Midwestern political movement led by William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925); three times candidate for President of the United States. From 1891-1895 Bryan served in the House of Representatives, where he advocated the coinage of silver at a fixed ratio with gold, in order to break the bankers' monopoly and manipulation of the gold-backed currency.


In 1896 Bryan delivered the following words at the Democratic National Convention: "Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the labouring interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their [i.e. the bankers'] demand for a gold standard by saying to them: 'You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.'"


Carroll Quigley wrote about the 1896 Presidential election in Tragedy and Hope: A History of The World in Our Time (MacMillan, 1966, p. 74): "Though the forces of high finance and of big business were in a state of near panic, by a mighty effort involving large-scale spending they were successful in electing McKinley."

L. Frank Baum was editor of a South Dakota newspaper and he wrote the first of his Oz series on Bryan's second attempt in 1900.


Dorothy, hailing from Kansas, represents the commoner.

The Tin Woodsman is the industrial worker, rusted as solid as the factories shut down in the 1893 depression. The Scarecrow is the farmer who apparently doesn't have the wit to understand his situation or his political interests. The Cowardly Lion is Bryan himself; who had a loud roar but little political power.





Oz book cover

By Richard Jensen, University of Illinois -- Chicago:

There are many variant readings of The Wizard of Oz. I see it as an election story, and read it against the amazingly intense elections of 1896 and 1900 when Democrat William Jennings Bryan ran against Republican William McKinley. At that time there was a profound hope by the pro-Bryan forces (silverites) that they could create a political revolution to overthrow the evils of the reactionary industrial order -- but what would the revolution be like? 1896 was a time of severe depression -- much like 1932. Making silver money at the ratio of 16 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold was their formula. In a vastly popular pamphlet Coin's Financial School the teenage fictional hero "Coin" argued there was lots of silver out West, but the world's small stock of gold was controlled by wicked bankers in New York and London.

Author Frank Baum was for a while a silverite newspaper editor in South Dakota where he watched the mounting excitement. He wrote Wizard during the rematch election of 1900, and it immediately became popular. After the Wizard book Baum moved to Los Angeles and churned out a whole series of Oz books, none of which are political. He also wrote a non-Oz novel that was a parable of the progressive era. Did people at the time see the novel as political? Yes: on October 6, 1906 the cover of Harper's Weekly magazine featured William Randolph Hearst ("Citizen Kane"), the newspaper editor who was running for governor. It depicted him as the scarecrow and the title was "The Wizard of Ooze."

The tale opens in the present in grey, deadening, drought-stricken Kansas. A sudden cyclone (silverite triumph at the polls) carries Dorothy (every-woman) into a flawed utopia -- a land overflowing with milk and honey yet controlled by cruel witches.

The cyclone lands Dorothy's house atop the Wicked Witch of the East, killing her and releasing The Munchkins from serfdom. (The money trust is deposed by Bryan's election, freeing the common people from bondage.)




The travellers then encounter a vivid symbol of the oppressed industrial worker, the Tin Woodsman. The Wicked Witch of the East had cast a spell so that every time he swung his axe he chopped off part of his body. He is entirely tin now, a purely mechanical being who fears he has lost the power to love. Alone he's helpless -- he can't oil his joints -- but in teamwork he proves effective and compassionate. (The industrial workers, dehumanized by industrialization, need to become aware of their latent compassion, and co-operate in a farmer-labour coalition.)


To achieve true freedom for herself and her allies Dorothy must destroy the Wicked Witch of the West -- who enslaves the girl before being dissolved by a bucket of water. (The western elite, especially land barons and mortgage holders, are the remaining obstacle; rain relieves the drought and permits the farmer to assert his superior power.)



Francis MacDonnell, "The Emerald City was the New Deal: E.Y. Harburg and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Journal of American Culture, Winter 1990, v.13, n.4, pp. 71-
Hugh Rockoff, "The 'Wizard of Oz' as a Monetary Allegory." The Journal of Political Economy. August 1990, v.98, n.4, pp. 739-

Jennings Bryan poster


Essential Further Reading:
PROSPERITY: Freedom from Debt Slavery
is a 4-page monthly journal which campaigns for publicly-created debt-free money. PROSPERITY is edited and published by Alistair McConnachie and a 12-issue subscription is available for £15 payable to PROSPERITY at 268 Bath Street, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, G2 4JR. Tel: 0141 332 2214; Fax: 0141 353 6900, admcc@admcc.freeserve.co.uk  http://www.prosperityuk.com


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