People then seemed to realize the danger of fiat money, yet The Federal Reserve Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on December 23, 1913, when most lawmakers had already left the Capital for their home states - and it passed on a simple majority of those present vote. It's a major theme of the novel that they all already have the things they claim to need. And the Cowardly Lion is the brave one, always volunteering to put himself at risk for the benefit of the group. The Tin Woodman is the empathetic one, who constantly worries about inadvertently harming anything else. If you read the book, the joke about those three characters is very clear - the Scarecrow is the intelligent one, who solves all the problems the group encounters. This, on the other hand, doesn't even meet that standard. > the Scarecrow represented the farmers (who didn’t have the brains to avoid the debt trap), the Tin Woodsman was the industrial proletariat (who didn’t have the heart to act in solidarity with the farmers), the Cowardly Lion represented the political class (who didn’t have the courage to intervene) This is more "crackpot theory" than "widely recognized".
#Wizard of oz tunesmith free#
> The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which appeared in 1900, is widely recognized to be a parable for the Populist campaign of William Jennings Bryan, who twice ran for president on the Free Silver platform – vowing to replace the gold standard with a bimetallic system that would allow the free creation of silver money alongside gold. “Oz” is of course the standard abbreviation for “ounce.” The yellow brick road, silver slippers, emerald city, and hapless Wizard presumably speak for themselves. According to the Populist reading, the Wicked Witches of the East and West represent the East and West Coast bankers (promoters of and benefactors from the tight money supply), the Scarecrow represented the farmers (who didn’t have the brains to avoid the debt trap), the Tin Woodsman was the industrial proletariat (who didn’t have the heart to act in solidarity with the farmers), the Cowardly Lion represented the political class (who didn’t have the courage to intervene). … ne of the main constituencies for the movement was debtors: particularly, Midwestern farm families such as Dorothy’s, who had been facing a massive wave of foreclosures during the severe recession of the 1890s. Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which appeared in 1900, is widely recognized to be a parable for the Populist campaign of William Jennings Bryan, who twice ran for president on the Free Silver platform – vowing to replace the gold standard with a bimetallic system that would allow the free creation of silver money alongside gold.