“You shall not press down upon the brow of labour this crown of thorns; you shall not crucity mankind upon a cross of gold”-William Jennings Bryan, July 9, 1896
Bryan was a Presidential candidate in the 1896 election, and his speech has gone down in history as a rallying cry of the poor man against the big money of the day. The fight was those like Bryan who believed in “bimetallism” where silver and gold would be the standard for the U.S. dollar as opposed to only gold which was seen as an attempt to keep down the masses. Bryan went on to lose the election and his case when the way of the dodo bird.
Four years later, Frank Baum wrote and publised the world famous “Wizard of Oz” which became a huge best seller. Little did Baum realize how popular his book would be and certainly he never envisioned the famous movie. There are those who believe that his book is an allegory for Bryan’s fight over bimetallism. There is no documentation for this theory, but let us take a look at some of the players:
1) The Scarecrow: represnets the Western Farmers who were hurt by the gold standard.2) Toto: Teetotalers3) The Tin Man: the working class in the cities4) The Cowardly Lion: William Jennings Bryan of whom it was said, his roar was loud but he had no bite.5) The Yellow Brick Road: The Gold standard6) Oz: the standard measure of gold, the ounce
When the movie was made, Dorothy’s shoes were changed from gold to red as the film producers felt they showed off better with the new miracle of color films.You can decide if it was an allegory.
