Kono was right in his writings. The novel the Wizard of Oz was indeed a populist commentary. The film, while it contained many of the themes and ideas contained in the novel, was missing several key elements (i.e. the silver shoes were ruby in the film). This makes perfect sense in that the main way people of that time period influenced one another was by writing, and the populists were simply trying to spread their message. But the analogies that kono made in his post as to what each character stood for were dead on, and much of what was said was in fact correct.
I’m assuming this was meant to be posted in this thread and that you clicked on New Thread instead of Post Reply.
No, he is not right. L. Frank Baum never expressed Populist opinions in his life.
For God’s sake, the man who made up this story admitted that he made it up years ago. Give it a rest!