![]() Several strikes also punctuated the growing depression, including a number of violent uprisings in the coal regions of Ohio and Pennsylvania. While no literary theorists or historians have proven this connection to be true, it is possible that Coxey’s Army inspired Baum to create Dorothy’s journey on the yellow brick road. Like Dorothy and her companions, Coxey’s Army gets in trouble, before being turned away with no help.įollowing this reading, the seemingly powerful but ultimately impotent Wizard of Oz is a representation of the president, and Dorothy only finds happiness by wearing the silver slippers-they only became ruby slippers in the later movie version-along the Yellow Brick Road, a reference to the need for the country to move from the gold standard to a two-metal silver and gold plan. In the story, the characters march towards Oz, much as Coxey’s Army marched to Washington. Frank Baum’s story of Dorothy and her friends seeking help from the Wizard of Oz.Īccording to this theory, the Scarecrow represents the American farmer, the Tin Woodman is the industrial worker, and the Cowardly Lion is William Jennings Bryan, a prominent “Silverite” (strong supporters of the Populist Party who advocated for the free coinage of silver) who, in 1900 when the book was published, was largely criticized by the Republicans as being cowardly and indecisive. This image of Coxey’s Army marching on Washington to ask for jobs may have helped inspire L. Frustration over the event led many angry works to consider supporting the Populist Party in subsequent elections. Upon their arrival, not only were their cries for federal relief ignored, but Coxey and several other marchers were arrested for trespassing on the grass outside the U.S. ![]() From the original one hundred protesters, the march grew five hundred strong as others joined along the route to the nation’s capital. In the spring of 1894, businessman Jacob Coxey led a march of unemployed Ohioans from Cincinnati to Washington, DC, where leaders of the group urged Congress to pass public works legislation for the federal government to hire unemployed workers to build roads and other public projects. Americans had to look elsewhere.Ī notable example of the government’s failure to act was the story of Coxey’s Army. Of course, to be fair, the government had seldom faced these questions before. The federal government had little in place to support those looking for work or to provide direct aid to those in need. Just as quickly, they learned what farmers had been taught in the preceding decades: A weak, inefficient government interested solely in patronage and the spoils system in order to maintain its power was in no position to help the American people face this challenge. Immediately following the economic downturn, people sought relief through their elected federal government. By 1895, Americans living in cities grew accustomed to seeing the homeless on the streets or lining up at soup kitchens. At the height of this depression, over three million American workers were unemployed. In some states, the unemployment rate soared even higher: over 35 percent in New York State and 43 percent in Michigan. In a single year, from 1893 to 1894, unemployment estimates increased from 3 percent to nearly 19 percent of all working-class Americans. When the railroads began to fail due to expenses outpacing returns on their construction, the supporting businesses, from banks to steel mills, failed also.īeginning with the closure of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company in 1893, several railroads ceased their operations as a result of investors cashing in their bonds, thus creating a ripple effect throughout the economy. Banks and investors fed the growth of the railroads with fast-paced investment in industry and related businesses, not realizing that the growth they were following was built on a bubble. The rapid proliferation of railroad lines created a false impression of growth for the economy as a whole. The causes of the Depression of 1893 were manifold, but one major element was the speculation in railroads over the previous decades. Following a brief rebound from the speculation-induced Panic of 1873, in which bank investments in railroad bonds spread the nation’s financial resources too thin-a rebound due in large part to the protective tariffs of the 1880s-a greater economic catastrophe hit the nation, as the decade of the 1890s began to unfold. As mentioned above, farmers were already struggling with economic woes, and the rest of the country followed quickly. The late 1880s and early 1890s saw the American economy slide precipitously. FROM FARMERS’ HARDSHIPS TO A NATIONAL DEPRESSION
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