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REPRODUCED F R O M : S U N SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 1956 LAS VEGAS 1955 YEAR- END FIGURES COMPLETELY DISPEL D E C L I N I N G E C O N O M Y REPORTS W HERE I STAN D By HANK GREENSPUN Reporters from all over are flocking to Las Vegas to give a first hand report for their news­papers on the "collapse” of Las Vegas. The Royal Nevada story had this effect on the country, and editors are anxious to have their newspapers hi on the "de­mise.” For the past few days, I’ve been making the rounds with representatives p t the San Franpisco News, Los Angeles Mirror-News and the United Press to see just how badly th*f town has been hurt. . These men came here with a preconceived outline of a story and their interest is learning how disastrous the "bust” real ly is, and not if there is any idanger of collapse. Reporters are primarily In­terested in good stories regard­less of who it hurts or how badly it, effects the economy of ah entire area. Usually there is nothing personal or malicious In their desires to be the first to break a story and frankly, the men who have been here In the past few days have looked forward to. their assign­ment. As a newspaperman, I could appreciate their Zeal and sym­pathize with them in their dis­appointment if a story does not break according to plan, But try as I might to evoke some pity, I still cannot help but re­joice In their disillusionment.. There Just' Isn’t a story. At •least, not the kind they hoped for. We made the circuit of the larger, hotels and ' experienced difficulty in getting show reser­vations. Dining rooms ., are crowded despite the usual fall­ing off in business after the New Year’s holiday weekend. At the Desert Inn, the boys could not get near some of the gambling tables. The old estab­lished hotels each had more business the past f ew nights than all the hotels combined in a corresponding p e r i o d five years ago. Bob Kaltenbom was inter­viewed as to his impressions and the reporters decided to give up their jobs in other cities and move to Las Vegas to get in on- some of the gravy which is indicated for Las Ve-gaS in the future. ? ! , Dwight Gravett, Vera Willis | and a representative of the i Natural Gas. Company which has pipelines into Las' Vegas give Paul Weeks of The Mir­ror a story,which left the poor chap shaking his head. The -tre­mendous outlay for the pipe­line. just- .completed is. still pot enough to fill the require­ments of this area and an ad­ditional, parallel pipeline - is about to start from Needles to t-As Vegas to provide an addi­tional, gas load at an expendi­ture of another four million dollars. ; The Southern Nevada Power Company with a new steam ?generator plant completed in the past week is working full speed ahead to bring in another generator with one and one-half times more power o'utput than the one just placed into service. Space is being left ,for a third one which will again dduble the present output. . In other words, local busi­nesses and investors have no fear for the future because plans are being made a n d money is being invested as if no one here has ever heard of the. collapse of the. Royal Ne­vada. The most illuminating inter­view was held with Realtor Tom Campbell who just com­pleted a 1955 year-end statisti­cal summary of the past year, portions of which are printed on Rage 5 of this issue. The figures show a 42 per cent gain in air travel over 1954 with a 400 per cent increase for the past five years. Bank deposits are up Vh per cent over last year and 105 per cent for the past five years. Building permits are up 20.5 per cent with 105 per cent gain over 1950. Eleetrie power has increased 40 per cent in the one year period and 165 pet cent over 1950. School enrollment Is up 19.5 per cent for the one year and 127 par cent over 1950. Retail sales have jumped 15 per cent in 1955 with an increase of 105 per cent over 1950. ' ’Telephones, water, natural gas, post office receipts, popu­lation, and motor vehicle regis­trations have shown tremend­ous volume but the best index of a town’s growth shows- the greatest gains. Carloadings, a barometer of business, in­creased 3z.Tr-per cent in 1955 over 1954 which is an indica­tion of prosperity that even the Wall Street Journal cannot dismiss. • Fritz McGonigl# of Manga-nese, Inc., gave Tom Campbell the figures for Basic Manage­ment operations, and they show an overall increase in industry of 20 to 25 per cent in. 1955 ever 1954. The tonnage produc­tion of manganese ore showed a 74 per cent gain in one year which indicates wonderful fu­ture for industry 4n the South­ern Nevada area. ?? - Visitors to Hoover Dam ex­ceeded 2,600,000 in 1955 which is approximately a half mil­lion more than 1954 with a per­centage increase of 23. So It is Hard to conceive of an economic raHajise in the fgee of Such statistics. And if there are those in the gambling in­dustry who might have some doubts, these figures should re­solve any fears. The latest fig-urea provided by the Nevada State Gambling Control Board for the first nine months of 1955 show an increase of 25 per cent in gross gambling earnings. ; ? Downtown casinos paid taxes on 14 per cent greater gross earnings than a corresponding period of 1954 and. this does not include New Year’s business which • was the greatest in our history. There is nothing wrong with Las Vegas that good business briains won’t cure. Successful businessmen investigate before they invest. They don’t go into a venture and expect to dupli­cate the established competi-i tor’s profits in a year, the way some of the new resort hotel i,operators anticipated. ! Sure there has been some trouble with the newer hotels, -but that was largely due to in­experience, mismanagement, excessive entertainment costs and under-financing, i But as Tom Campbell sums up his statistical survey: “AH in all the future for Las Ve­gas looks bright. Very bright, indeed. And this’ comes net merely ai a hopeftil prognosti­cation. These are good solid, | authenticated statistics to prove ‘it.’' ??? Sorry to disappoint-the re­porters for the out of town (newspapers. The bust they ex-i pec ted to find is spelled “boom." However, they can still file istocies; but, stick to the facts men. All we want are the facts! (# 0 0 4-G )