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What is the link between L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1900) and the Panic of 1893?

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What is the link between L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1900) and the Panic of 1893?

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  1. While the unadulterated beauty of the West inspired conservationists such as Teddy Roosevelt, huge silver strikes like the Comstock Lode (1859) attracted individual prospectors then heavy investment by large corporations from the East or the U.K. Between 1859 and 1878, the Lode registered about $400 million in silver and gold and there were similar strikes throughout these mineral rich territories (which quickly became states). Western mine owners teamed with agrarian populists in the call for free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16:1. Most bankers (and Republicans) preferred a purely gold standard.

  2. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 (part of the compromise bill for the McKinley Tariff) required the Treasury to buy 4.5 million oz. of silver each month at market price and paid for it with legal tender notes redeemable in either gold or silver. The Tariff, however, raised rates on most foreign goods and was seen as a tax on the poor to benefit the rich industries. Congressman McKinley was not reelected in 1890 (as the Democrats took the House) but won the White House in 1896 on a well-funded platform that defended both the gold standard and the protective tariff. • Meanwhile, the Panic of 1893 resulted from too many creditors being paid in silver while foreign (and certain domestic) bankers insisted American loans be paid in gold. By the end of 1893 the U.S. gold reserve had plunged to $80 million, causing President Cleveland to ask for and receive the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.

  3. What is the link between L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1900) and the Panic of 1893? Coxey’s “Army” follows the yellow brick road during the fateful spring of 1894. Jacob Coxey’s plan had a lot in common with the one adopted by FDR during the Great Depression.

  4. Cleveland’s call for tariff reform resulted in the unpopular Wilson-Gorman Tariff which passed over a presidential veto in August of 1894. Despite maintaining/surpassing the rates of the McKinley Tariff, the act featured a 2% flat tax on personal and corporate income over $4,000. Predictably, the Supreme Court struck down this income tax in the case of Pollock v. Farmers Loan and Trust Company. The Underwood-Simmons Tariff of 1913 (characteristic of the Progressive Era, c. 1900-1919) would lower rates on nearly 1,000 items. It would also include a significant graduated income tax protected by the newly ratified 16th Amendment. • As for the Panic and depression of 1893, a banking group headed by J.P. Morgan and August Belmont loaned $62 million in gold to replenish the treasury in exchange for a favorable rate on government bonds that netted them $1.5 million. Cleveland turned away from tariff reform and supported big business during labor disorders such as the Pullman Strike of 1894 (caused when George Pullman fired 1/3 of his workforce and lowered salaries while raising rents and rates in the company town and stores). The Democrats would rally behind the silver standard and William Jennings Bryan in 1896, but the Republicans held on to the key population centers of the Northeast and gold standard protectionism was maintained.

  5. Election of 1896: The Battle of Standards introduced the modern split between the two major parties and illustrates the concept of the Solid South. Electoral: 271-176 Popular: 7,112,138- 6,508,172

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