One of the 20th century’s most popular books, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” may have been an allegory based on the economic and political climate of the United States when Niles-born William McKinley was president.

And according to local McKinley expert Mike Wilson, who impersonates the 25th president, McKinley could have been the “great and powerful” Wizard of Oz.

“McKinley didn’t travel to campaign in 1896 because of his wife Ida’s illnesses,” Wilson said. “Often, the voters would come to his house in Canton. And when they did, McKinley would emerge at the front window from behind a curtain — the man behind the curtain.”

McKinley, a Republican, defeated Democrat and populist William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska because many industrialists in the Northern and Eastern states wanted the U.S. to go on the gold standard to free up money for investments. Bryan and his populists in the Midwest farming states were backing silver, Wilson said.

The book, written by newspaperman L. Frank Baum, was published in 1900. Although no one asked Baum if the novel was based on the McKinley-Bryan election, Wilson said the similarities are too much for it to be a coincidence.

Here is how Wilson and others who believe in the allegory think how the characters match up:

l The Wizard, of course, is McKinley or any other president of the Gilded Age, 1877-1917, Wilson said. Oz , is the abbreviation for ounce — the standard measure for weighing gold or silver;

l Dorothy represents the “common person, the person from silver country,” said Wilson. He also said Baum was not a fan of McKinley, which is illustrated at the end. “When she needed him (the wizard) the most, he flies the coop.”

In the book, Dorothy also wore silver slippers. It wasn’t until the book was made into a movie in 1939 that the shoes became ruby red;

l Wicked Witch of the West represents land barons of the old West who were buying farmland;

l Scarecrow was the late 19th-century farmers who were populist and backed Bryan, said Wilson;

l The Cowardly Lion is probably Bryan, who the media dubbed the “cowardly candidate” for taking “pot shots” at McKinley and then backing off, Wilson said. Bryan, who ran for president in 1896 and in 1900, heavily criticized McKinley after the 1898 Spanish-American War because it thrust the U.S. into world affairs and because of territory expansion for the U.S., Wilson said;

l The Tin Man represented the workers of industry who “were worried about running out of oil, which would make industrialist John D. Rockefeller very nervous,” Wilson said;

l The Emerald City represented either Washington, D.C., or New York;

l The flying monkeys represented the indigenous Native Americans who roamed the Western and Plains states at the time.

gvogrin@tribtoday.com