Hearst, William Randolph 1863-1951

HEARST, WILLIAM RANDOLPH 1863-1951

Editor, Publisher, Politician, Collector

Empire

Born to a family fortune made in mining, William Randolph Hearst built one of the largest communications empires in U.S. history. His assets, estimated at between $200 million and $400 million, included sixteen daily newspapers with a combined circulation of more than five million, the International News Service, King Features, the American Weekly Sunday supplement, Cosmopolitan, Harpers Bazaar, and Good Housekeeping. He also amassed one of the finest private art and antique collections in the world.

A Rich Kid's Diversion Turns to Serious Business

Young Hearst was thrown out of Harvard University in his junior year for a series of practical jokes. He distributed chamber pots to faculty members with their names inserted on the bottoms and tethered a jackass in the home of one professor, with a note that read, "Now there are two of you." He then went to work at Joseph Pulitzer's World. He admired both its sensationalism and its idealism. His father, who served as a U.S. senator from California, had purchased the San Francisco Examiner to further his political ambitions. Young Hearst proposed to take it over and turn it into a real newspaper, increase circulation, subscribe to the telegraph service of the New York Herald, and clean up California with campaigns against the influence of Southern Pacific Railroad magnates Leland Stanford and Collis P. Huntington. He was twenty-four years old.

Talent Raids

In 1895 he bought the New York Journal, a morning paper. Within a year it was second only to the World in circulation. By offering salary increases, he raided the World and other papers, hiring away many of its star reporters, editors, and artists, including Arthur Brisbane, Richard Outcault, and Solomon Carvalho. His art department created cartoon characters such as the Katzenjammer Kids, Foxy Grandpa, Alphonse and Gaston, and Happy Hooligan. The next year Hearst added the Evening Journal and bought the New York Morning Advertiser to secure its Associated Press franchise. His publishing tactics infuriated Pulitzer, who accused Hearst of pandering to the lowest tastes of his readers.

"I'll Furnish the War."

When a conflict with Spain over Cuba threatened to turn into war in 1898, Hearst used his papers to incite bloodthirst. He sent the artist Frederic Remington to Cuba to draw the coming conflict, but Remington cabled him that all seemed quiet. Hearst cabled back, "You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." While Hearst's excessive jingoism contributed to public support of hostile action against Spain, most historians agree that the publisher did not actually cause the war.

Political Ambitions

Hearst harbored political ambitions and set his eye on the White House. He supported Democrat William Jennings Bryan in 1900 and hoped to be Bryan's running mate in 1904. Since the Democratic convention was scheduled for Chicago, the party wanted a sympathetic newspaper in that city. Hearst dutifully bought the Chicago American and was rewarded with the presidency of the National Association of Democratic Clubs, a high-profile national position in the party. He ran for Congress from New York in 1902 and won by a margin of three to one, but the victory was marred when a fireworks accident at his Madison Square Garden celebration killed eighteen people and injured many others. In Congress he worked against railroad trusts and for public ownership of railroads, telegraphs, and mines. He also supported the eight-hour workday, a graduated income tax, and more money to schools and the U.S. Navy. In 1904 Hearst polled second in the balloting for the Democratic presidential nomination and then won reelection to Congress. He ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York in 1906 and mayor of New York City in 1909.

Later Exploits

During World War I Hearst got into trouble for his anti-British sentiments, which were construed as pro-German. While his personal popularity plum-meted, he continued to expand his empire to twelve news-papers by 1919, including the Boston Daily Advertiser, the Washington Star, the Chicago Herald, the Wisconsin News, and the San Francisco Call. He lived in semiseclusion at his famous California castle, San Simeon, until his death in 1951 at age eighty-eight.

Source:

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W. A. Swanberg, Citizen Hearst (New York: Scribners, 1961).