The Wizard Of Oz and Populism

Throughout my childhood I loved watching the movie "The Wizard Of Oz". I read the book as well numerous times growing up and never until my first Sociology class in college did I know it pertained to populism and the United States at the turn of the century. Frank Baum is the author of this magnificant juvenile story and if you read between the lines you can see where there are many different meanings as far as the characters are concerned etc...For example, The wicked witch of the east in real life could be compared to the easterrn industrialists and bankers who controlled the "little people" like in the movie were the munchkins. The scarecrow represented the western farmer who was wise but also naive. The tin man was looked upon as the industrial workerr who was known as being dehumanized. In 1896 the presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan was looked at as being the cowardly lion. The gold standard during this particular era was like the yellow brick road. In the book Baum origionally made Dorothy's slippers silver (however in the movie her slippers were ruby red) which represented the solution as the populists saw it to the nations problems...The free unlimited coinage of silver!!
Washington D.C. was seen as the Emerald City. There were also analogies found for Toto and Oz itself. Toto being dorothy's faithful companion was seen as the teetotaling prohibitionists and they were a significant part of the silverite coalition. If your like me and not familiar with the Silverites slogan "16-1" meaning the ratio of sixteen ounces of silver to one ounce of gold then you would not make the connection of "Oz" as being the abbreviation for ounce. These are just a few that I found so intrigueing. When I wrote my paper I learned even more after researching for hours at the college library. Who would of ever thought that a childs magical story like "The Wizard Of Oz" would apply to life in such a way.