The Wizard of Oz as Political Allegory

[syrakusos]

MICHAEL MAROTTA ON THE WIZARD OF OZ PARABLE

The E-Sylum weekly maillist of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society

Volume 12, Number 26, June 28, 2009

Reader Michael E. Marotta is working on an article taking issue with the thesis put forth by several numismatists that The Wizard of Oz, with its yellow brick road and originally silver (not ruby) slippers was meant as a parable on the Gold and Silver Question of 1896. He submitted a preview (excerpted here) together with a bibliography too lengthy for publication here. Contact me or Michael for a copy if interested. -Editor

The theory that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a parable about populism originated with Henry M. Littlefield. The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism. American Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Spring, 1964, pp. 47-58. Johns Hopkins U niversity Press).

Littlefield was the first to explicitly identify the Scarecrow as the Farmer, the Tinman as the Industrial Worker, the Cowardly Lion as William Jennings Bryan, the Wizard might be any President from Grant to McKinley. In the original story, Dorothy is given silver, not ruby slippers. The Yellow Brick Road is the gold standard.

In retelling the theory 25 years later, political science professor Michael A. Genovese wrote: "The allegory begins with the title. Oz is the abbreviation for ounce, the standard measure used for gold. In 1989, economics professors Michael Watts and Robert F. Smith pointed out that oz stands for an ounce of both silver and gold."

According to economics professor Hugh Rockoff: "The cyclone is the free silver movement itself. It came roaring out of the West in 1896, shaking the political establishment to its foundations." In 1991, Mitchell Sanders found meaning in the magical golden cap. The existence of the magical cap thus represents a twisted version of the Golden Rule: whoever owns the gold makes the rules. Similar emendations and amendments are in many of the retellings.

Littlefield himself actually published something of a retraction, in the opinion pages of the New York Times for February 7, 1992: there is no basis in fact to consider Baum a supporter of turn-of-the-century Populist ideology. Baum's story may be taken as a parable on Populism, not a Populist parable.

"We will never know if Baum had any conscious allegory in mind. I still think of the possibility of political allusions in The Wizard of Oz as a kind of undercurrent, a context. My original point in the article was not to label Baum, or to lessen any of his magic, but rather, as a history teacher at Mount Vernon High School, to invest turn-of-the-century America with the imagery and wonder I have always found in his stories."

Despite that, the theory has taken on a life of its own. Speculations continue, in part, because the circumstantial evidence is strong. The salient point for numismatists is that the idea did not begin with Walter Breen. In fact, none of the 26 works I have found on this subject cites Breen. Some cite no one, the author taking full credit for the ideas of others.

Fact or fantasy? We've discussed the topic in prior E-Sylums, and we'll look forward to the publication of Michael's article. -Editor

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Note: In 1990, numismatist Walter Breen delivered a talk at the American Numismatic Society's annual "Coinage of the Americas" conference. The speech, “Metallic panaceas : gold bugs, silver crusaders, and the Wizard of Oz”, was included in an ANS volume of papers from the conference, something they do each year. So, some numismatists knew this as Breen's own theory. In fact, I found it coincidental (or not) that Littlefield's original essay appeared in a journal published by Breen's alma mater.

[syrakusos]

The Crime of ‘73 and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: a Selected Bibliography

By Michael E. Marotta

• Gardner, Martin and Russell B. Nye, The Wizard of Oz and Who He Was. East Lansing: The Michigan State University Press, 1957. Revised edition 1994.
• Littlefield, Henry M. “The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism.” American Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Spring, 1964), pp. 47-58. Johns Hopkins University Press. (This is the source of the Populism-Bimetallism theory.)
• Hearn, Michael Patrick. The Annotated Wizard of Oz. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1973. Reprinted 2000 with a preface by Martin Gardner.
• Genovese, Michael, A. “The Wonderful Wizard Lives On `Oz' Maintains Its Appeal in Our Political Consciousness.” Los Angeles Times. Mar 19, 1988. Page: 8. Metro; 2; Op Ed Desk.
• Genovese, Michael A. “A political scientist on the Yellow Brick Road.” Chicago Sun-Times. 17 April 1988. © 1988 Chicago Sun Times. (“The following is a condensed version of the controversial article submitted by Michael Genovese to the Los Angelese [sic] Times and syndicated nationally.”)
• Watts, Michael and Robert F. Smith. “Economics in Literature and Drama.” The Journal of Economic Education, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Summer, 1989), pp. 291-307. Heldref Publications.
• Daniels, Lee A. “EDUCATION; Vermont College and Bronx School Collaborate to Lure Minority Pupils.(National Desk).” The New York Times (Feb 8, 1989). (Story cites history teacher who uses the Wizard of Oz to highlight the Populist era. – MEM)
• Dreier, Peter. “The Politics of Oz.” Pacific News Service. 24 September 1989. The San Francisco Chronicle. © 1989 Hearst Communications Inc.
• Breen, Walter. “Metallic panaceas : gold bugs, silver crusaders, and the Wizard of Oz.” America's Gold Coinage New York, 1990. Coinage of the America Conference. Proceedings. no. 6 p. [33]-54. American Numismatic Society.
• Koupal, Nancy Tystad. “From the Land of Oz: L. Frank Baum's Satirical View of South Dakota's First Year of Statehood.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Spring, 1990), pp. 46-57. Montana Historical Society.
• Rockoff, Hugh. “The ‘Wizard of Oz’ as a Monetary Allegory.” The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 98, No. 4 (Aug., 1990), pp. 739-760. The University of Chicago Press.
• Sloan, Don. “The Wizard of Oz Unmasked as the President.” The New York Times. December 25, 1990.
• Sanders, Mitch. “Setting the Standards on the Road to Oz,” The Numismatist, July 1991. Vol. 104, no. 7, p. 1042-1050. The American Numismatic Association, Colorado Springs.
• Steinfels, Peter. “Following the Yellow Brick Road, and Finding a Spiritual Path.” The New York Times. November 28, 1991
• Rosen, Saul. “No Mysticism in Oz, Just the Populist Credo.” The New York Times. December 20, 1991.
• Hearn, Michael Patrick. “'Oz’ Author Never Championed Populism.” The New York Times. January 10, 1992.
• Littlefield, Henry M. “‘Oz’ Author Kept Intentions to Himself .” The New York Times. February 7, 1992. (“Baum's story may be taken as a parable on Populism, not a Populist parable. … We will never know if Baum had any conscious allegory in mind.”)
• Parker, David B., “The Rise and Fall of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a “Parable on Populism,” Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians, vol. 15 (1994), pp. 49-63
• Ritter, Gretchen. “Silver Slippers and a Golden Cap: L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and Historical Memory in American Politics.” Journal of American Studies, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Aug., 1997), pp. 171-202 Published by: Cambridge University Press.
• Ziaukus, Tim. “Baum's Wizard of Oz as gilded age public relations.” Public Relations Quarterly, Fall 1998.
• MacDonald, Rich. “The Road to Emerald City is Paved with Good Intentions.” EconEdLink: Council for Economic Education. http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.php?lesson=38 posted on: September 9, 1999. Accessed 26June2009.
• Hansen, Bradley A. “The Fable of the Allegory: The Wizard of Oz in Economics,” Journal of Economic Education, Summer 2002. pp 254-264.
• Dighe, Ranjit S., editor The Historian’s Wizard of Oz. Westport, Connecticut: Fraeger, 2002.
• Taylor, Quentin P. “Money and Politics in the Land of Oz.” The Independent Review (Winter 2005). © Copyright 2006, The Independent Institute. http://www.usagold.com/gildedopinion/oz.html
• Brunner, Lane, Ph.D. “Gold, Silver and the Wizard of Oz.” Numismatic Theater, National Money Show, American Numismatic Association, Charlotte, North Carolina, March 18, 2007
• Schwartz, Evan, I. Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2009.
• Wikipedia, “Political Interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_interpretations_of_The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz. (This page was last modified on 11 May 2009 at 12:53.) Accessed June 26, 2009.

[Selene]

William Jennings Bryant - Man shall not be crucified on a cross of gold speech!

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.

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354

[BaalChatzaf]

William Jennings Bryant - Man shall not be crucified on a cross of gold speech!

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.

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354

W. J. Bryant gives away in Progressive sentiments by referring to live human beings as masses. The Progressive Rot had set in before the 20 century.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Wolf DeVoon]

The Progressive Rot had set in before the 20 century.

 

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Bryan's Cross of Gold speech (1896) played to The Grangers who traded in silver, against East Coast gold-standard bankers.

 

"The Granger movement succeeded in regulating the railroads and grain warehouses. The births of the Cooperative Extension Service, Rural Free Delivery, and the Farm Credit System were due largely to Grange lobbying. The peak of their political power was marked by their success in Munn v. Illinois (1877), which held that grain warehouses were a "private utility in the public interest" and could be regulated by public law. Other significant Grange causes included temperance, the direct election of Senators and women's suffrage. During the Progressive Era of the 1890s to the 1920s political parties took up Grange causes." [Wikipedia]

 

Three others from that period who did far more damage than WJ Bryan ("The Great Commoner") ...

Gail Wynand (Wm Randolph Hearst), Teddy Roosevelt (founder of Progressive Party) and John Dewey.

 

Of course, things have pretty much gone totally to hell 100 years later. Quelle surprise, huh?

 

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[syrakusos]

"Hard money" people today forget that silver was inflation money. The price was stable at $1.2929, the value of silver in a silver dollar, from 1789 to 1862. (Some market fluctuations occurred, but they were minor and temporary.) The Civil War never went well for the Union until the very end and in 1862, the price of silver shot up to $1.71/oz. As the economy recovered, the price fell to $1.31 in 1876 and $1.21 in 1877. Something had to be done. Richard "Silver Dick" Bland got a bill through Congress requiring the Treasury to buy 24 million to 48 million ounces of silver per year at twice the market rate. The consequential market price still ranged about one dollar per ounce, making silver coinage a fiduciary instrument, good only because it could be traded for gold. In fact, it was not. Silver, gold, and paper circulated alongside each other at par. That belies the so-called "Gresham's Law". After 1893, and the cessation of the subsidies, the price of silver collapsed, and did not recover until 1945, when it jumped from 44 cents per ounce to over 70.

(Note: The USA lent the UK 270 million ounces of silver for World War I. The UK was in danger of losing India. Rumors spread that the Bank of England notes would not be honored for silver. After the war, the UK repaid the silver because it took all of Gemany's gold. (That is what caused the massive inflation of 1921-1923.) To balance the books at the Treasury, the US Mint struck nearly 90 million silver dollars in 1921 (Morgan variety, plus 1 million "Peace"). In 1922, another 50 million dollar coins (Peace) were struck. This work actually eclipsed all other production; and minor silver coins from 1921are relatively rare today. In 1922, no dimes, quarters, or halves were struck.)

[Selene]

Bryan's Cross of Gold speech (1896) played to The Grangers who traded in silver, against East Coast gold-standard bankers.

"The Granger movement succeeded in regulating the railroads and grain warehouses. The births of the Cooperative Extension Service, Rural Free Delivery, and the Farm Credit System were due largely to Grange lobbying. The peak of their political power was marked by their success in Munn v. Illinois (1877), which held that grain warehouses were a "private utility in the public interest" and could be regulated by public law. Other significant Grange causes included temperance, the direct election of Senators and women's suffrage. During the Progressive Era of the 1890s to the 1920s political parties took up Grange causes." [Wikipedia]

John Dewey.

Of course, things have pretty much gone totally to hell 100 years later. Quelle surprise, huh?

Wolf:

Understand your points.

However, John Dewey is in my ten (10) most wanted philosophical lists and we do not have a TV show, or, PSA [gag] announcements about dangers to society!

A...

[Wolf DeVoon]

a TV show.. about dangers to society!

You know, that's a really good idea. I pitched a show along those lines in 99, before I went to Costa Rica, and the only reason it never came to fruition was production cost back then, before the advent of digital cameras and desktop editing. I have a couple years left to kick around. It could be done with a small team on a shoestring budget.

Thanks.

[Selene]

Thanks.

No problem.

My pleasure.

I like the way you approach problems and I love your "in your face" argumentation.

When I do not have my mediator hat on, I take no prisoners.

A...