WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEAR ST is a product of the turbulent Old West. His methods and morals are those of the San Francisco of the seventies and eighties. His father, George Hearst, was the son of a wealthy Missouri farmer who had interests in lead mines. When George Hearst joined the gold rush of "49, the Missouri farmer"s wealth supported the boy until, in J859, George Hearst bought an interest in the Comstock silver lode for $450, which he sold two years later for a small fortune. Thereupon he formed a partnership-Hearst, Haggin, Tevis and Campany-to operate in mining shares. He acquired the Homestake property in South Dakota for $70,000 in 1877 and the Anaconda prop· erty in Montana iQ 1884 for a pittance. After serving a few weeks of an appointive term in the United States Senate in 1886, he financed the Democratic campaign in California in that year and a year later was rewarded by being elected United States Senator. He was at once made a member of the Senate Indian Table of...