Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story by Evan I. Schwartz

Author:Evan I. Schwartz [Schwartz, Evan I.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HMH Books
Published: 2009-04-23T04:00:00+00:00

The hectic trip to Chicago and all its uncertainty took their toll on Frank. As soon as he was on the train back home, his hope for a better life began to be overtaken by his fear of failing once again. By the time he returned to Aberdeen, his excitement about the journey ahead seemed to have worn off, replaced with a case of second thoughts. His predicament triggered despair and then anger over the fact that he had been working so hard for all those years yet had nothing to show for it. He started using his newspaper as a platform to lash out at those whom he blamed for the lousy state of affairs in South Dakota.

His list of rogues and rascals included local preachers, politicians, and business proprietors whom he saw as being in cahoots with one another. He reserved special ire for Hagerty, the banker who happened to be part owner of the Aberdeen Daily News, the town's most powerful newspaper. He suggested that Hagerty was a felon for accepting deposits and selling stock in his bank even though he knew it was bound to collapse. Frank condemned the patronage system, in which politicians parceled out government contracts to those who supported them in the elections. Officials favored the owners of the News with custom printing jobs while passing over his newspaper. He took a swipe at one of the state's U.S. senators, Gideon Moody, "with his massive brain," for not being able to solve the state's problems. He blamed pastors for not speaking up. "What good are your churches, preacher?" Frank raged in his issue of January 24. "What good are the Christian teachings ... when such a state of affairs is permitted to exist?" Corruption was rampant, ruining everything, and religious leaders were part of the racket. "Alas," Frank concluded, "mammon rules the world and not morality. Where will the end be?"

And so there he was, fighting his way out of the last ditch. Perhaps he really could save his newspaper if he just took this more provocative approach. The transfer of the business back to its original owner was not yet finalized, and maybe he could just tear up the lease he had signed. His social antennae told him that people were angry and yearned for an honest expression of that anger. The Pioneer could be that voice. Frank announced he was converting the paper into a Sunday publication and moving back up to twelve pages.

But then came the counterattacks. An enraged Hagerty led the charge, calling Baum's tirades "the acme of meanness" in an editorial. "Were it possible to dissect a soul like Mr. Baum's, I opine that it would be found smaller than the historic mustard seed."

Frank may have been able to withstand abuse from a crook like Hagerty, but he soon pushed the debate way out of bounds when he started a spat with the superintendent of schools. That man's salary of $1,600 exceeded that of superintendents in neighboring towns, and Frank suggested that the padding in his pay was a form of patronage.

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