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R e p r o d u c e d f r o m SUN DAY, M A R C H 4, 1956 E . E . B . MAR 8 195P Statistics Refute Charge Las Vegas Bubble About to Burst Special to The S. F. Examiner LAS VEGAS, March 3.—Busi­ness and industrial leaders in NeVada are indignant over re­ports that the fabulous Las Vegas bubble is about to burst. The fact that two or three of the luxurious resort hotels along the famed Las Vegas “strip” have folded for lack of adequate financing and sound management is no harbinger of desire consequences for the entire community, they insist They point out that down­town Las Vegas, as distin­guished from the distant, non­incorporated "strip," never has had it so. good business-wise according to the 1955 statistics. NO CURTAILMENT. “We are not curtailing our banking activity one hit in Las Vegas,” decalred E. J. Questa, president of the $200,000,000 First National Bank of Nevada. i He said: "In the past five years we . have spent over a $1,000,000 on buildings and equipment there and our deposits and . employes have doubeld. We opened our third Las Vegas branch in 1955 and are dou­bling the size of our second branch, which was established In 1951, We are again en­larging our downtown branch which was doubled in size two years ago. “We believe we are justi-’ fied in saying we are opti­mistic because every indica­tion shows that business is sound in Las Vegas, reports to the contrary notwithstand­ing,” Questa’s optimism is founded ion statistics for the last year compiled by Thomas A, Camp­bell, president of the board of .the Las Vegas Valley Water District and prominent * Clark County realtor. BUILDING PERMITS. City building permits were up 20.5 per cent over 1954 and up 288 per cent in the past four years; trust ded recordings up 6 per cent for the year and up 232 per cent since 1952; city retail sales up 15 per cent, witn a five year increase of 105 per cent at $163,000,000 for the year; population gain 81 per cent in five years with 45,000 permanent residents in 1955, and a 26 per cent increase iq the n umb e r of visitors to Hoover Dam. One of the main indices of prosperity is the growth in the use of electrlo current, said A. S. Wengert, vice presi­dent of the Southern Nevada Power Company, “At the end of 1954, our ' firm's total investment was $8,800,000,” W e n g e r t ob­served. “In the year 1955 an investment of $9,400,000 was added to the plant-—an amount larger than the total capital investment for the- ' entire forty-nine years pre­vious. “During 1956, additional expenditures for prodduc-tion expansion wUl total $10,500,000. and by the end of 1957 plant investment will have topped $30,000,000 — five times the investment of 1953.” Nevada’s allocation of 18 per cent of the Hoover Dam power output, once deemed excessive, has l ong since proved inadequate. Such concerns as National Lead, Allegheny Ludlurn Steel, American Potash and Chem­ical, Manganese Incorporated, Stauffer Chemical, and United States Lime Products have vast operations at Henderson, just south of Las Vegas. Johns Manville Corporation and other national concerns are report­edly locating in the area. Car-loadings, at 39,720 cars are up 19.2 per cent. As a consequence, Clark County for 1955 had an aggre­gate payroll of over $167,- 000,000. Of this amount, only $50,000,000 represented pay re­ceived by employes of hotels, motels, casinos, amusement centers and hospitals. During the past year 2,404 new homes were constructed in the area and 1,200 dwellings are scheduled for 1956 to ac­commodate some of the 6,000 persons now living in trailers. Property valuations have in­creased 1,000 per cent since 1941. The better established hotel casinos on the “strip” are not i complaining. Beldon Katleman of the El Rancho Vegas said overall revenue for 1955 in­creased 14 per cent. Wilbur Clark at Desert Inn reported February of 1956 “one of the1 largest, if not the largest,j month we have had.” [ Similar sentiments Were ex- j pressed by Milton Prell of the ! Sahara, Marion Hicks of the Thunderbird, A1 Paryin of the j Flamingo, Jake Freedman of. The Sands, BUI More of the El' 'Cortez and Maurice Friedman: ‘of the New Frontier. *0 0 2 -0