Today.. We Panic. Is The Wizard of Oz just a story or does it tell something more? Just follow the yellow brick road..

Today..

• We Panic.• Is The Wizard of Oz

just a story or does it tell something more?

Just follow the yellow brick road..

Farmers’ Political Groups

• 1860-1890 U.S. population doubled• Needed more farms, machines to farm

• Oops! Overproduction = lower prices!• Lower income = harder to pay bills• Debt = Lose farm/home

Panic of 1893: Who’s to blame?

• Businesspeople? Railroad owners?• Gold standard vs. Silver standard?

• William Jennings Bryan backed Populism in the Presidential election. Lost.

• Idea: Government should own railroads, telephone, telegraph systems instead of private owners. “Free Silver”

The Populist Platform• Free silver

• Graduated income tax

• Public ownership of railroads, telegraphs and telephones

• Restricted immigration

• 8 hour workday

• Women suffrage

• Secret ballot

• Direct election of senators

L. Frank Baum (1856 – 1919)author of

The Wizard of OZ

The Wizard of Ozas

Political Allegory

The characters and who they represent

Dorothy represents the American people

The Scarecrow represents the western farmers(Populists)

The Tin Woodsman represents the eastern workers, victims of mechanization

The Cowardly Lion represents William Jennings Bryan (1860 – 1925):Bryan, a Democrat, ran for the presidency in 1896 and lost to William McKinley; thus Bryan had a load roar, but no power.

Bryan and the

Cross of Gold

• “If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands 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.”

Bryan favored bimetallism

Bryan's Cross of Gold Speech, Recording

The Wicked Witch of the East

Represents the eastern banking interests

=

The Wizard of Oz

William McKinley (1843 – 1901)25th President of the United States(1897 – 1901)

Marcus A. Hanna (1837 – 1904)

or

Oz

The abbreviation for an ounce of gold or silver

The Yellow Brick Roadand

Silver (not ruby!)Slippers

The bimetallism ratio16:1

• 16 oz. of silver is equal to 1 oz of gold

• This has fluctuated over the years, but the standard remains between 14:1 and16:1

Balance achieved?

Only with a proper coalition of industrial and agrarian interests,

but it never happened

Wizard of Oz

• Which character would you like to hear from?

Notice:• What other connections did the story have

with what happened with the Populist movement?

Poster for a melodrama, presented at the Chestnut St. Opera House, Philadelphia, 1895

How this applies to today:• 100% of the money supply in the U.S. is created by private banks• All this money is created as a debt. It is created when people borrow

money, as banks do not lend existing money; they just create new money out of thin air to lend.

• Possible solutions?

Quiz Monday:*Know why people chose to move West*terms: cattle kingdom, the range, homestead act, exodusters, populism*importance of the railroad and the Golden Stake*Negative effects of people moving WestSitting Bull, Crazy Horse and the Sioux*What happened at Custer’s Last Stand?*Results of Native American vs. U.S. Gov’t conflict (why was the land

taken away?)*What led to the Panic of 1893?*William Jennings Bryan, L. Frank Baum, Wizard of Oz*Know the main players (ie: who the characters represent) in the

Populism movement