Las Vegas Made Safe

The builders of Hoover Dam will spend 50,000,000 Federal dollars in and around Las Vegas, Nev. in the next eight years. In anticipation of this flood of cash, the little desert town, main-line rail base for the construction camps, has been swelling and swelling like a toadstool. Real estate has boomed, collapsed, boomed again. Night clubs opened up with show girls from Los Angeles. Speakeasies flourished, for Nevada has no dry law. Gambling resorts blossomed legally. Dam workers were to be separated from their pay checks as pleasantly as possible.

All this growth and commotion at Las Vegas the Federal Government eyed with stern disfavor. It was decided that Hoover Dam shall be built in a moral atmosphere. Therefore from Washington last week went forth secret orders which sent half a hundred Prohibition agents under Col. George Seavers of San Francisco swooping down upon Las Vegas. Twenty-five night clubs, saloons and roadhouses were raided. Lakes of liquor were seized, five breweries put out of commission. Fire threatened the business district when enthusiastic agents ignited a great stack of mash barrels. Arrested were 80 bootleggers, bartenders, speakeasy proprietors, girl entertainers. After a twelve-hour "clean-up," Las Vegas was reported to be as Dry as the surrounding sagebrush. Declared Col. Seavers:

"We're going to make this place safe for Hoover Dam workers."

Though they will spend their money and playtime at Las Vegas, Hoover Dam workmen will live at Boulder City, a construction village being built for them 31 mi. away at the dam site.* Last week in Washington steps were taken to fix the moral tone of Boulder City, make it a "model town." Appointed by Secretary of the Interior Wilbur to manage the land leasing on this government reservation was Louis C. Cramton, onetime (1913-31) Michigan Congressman, ardent Prohibitor. At Boulder City, Mr. Cramton announced, only two competing businesses of the same type would be permitted, and leases would be granted only on "character, personal fitness, personality, age, physical condition, financial and service fitness, training and experience." Only U. S. citizens may do business at Boulder City. Business lots will rent at $300 per year, residence lots at $120 per year. Mr. Cramton warned that Six Companies. Inc., contractors for the dam, would operate their own commissary for workmen at Boulder City. Said he: "The purpose of the Government ... is to guard against wholesale bankruptcy as the result of extravagant overdevelopment . . . and plans based on hopes rather than information."

The construction contract for Hoover Dam began to run last week. Six Companies, Inc. have 2,635 days to finish the job, after which they must pay the U. S. a penalty of $3,000 per day for any tardiness. On the job now are 350 men.

Boom prospects attracted to Las Vegas, along with many another adventurer, one Blair Coan, onetime handyman of the Republican National Committee. He bobbed up in Las Vegas to start a newspaper. In Los Angeles to buy printing equipment, Blair Coan declared of Las Vegas:

"People are streaming in from everywhere. There is no room in hotels. The town needs 1,000 more homes and 150 more stores. There isn't a gas plant in town. . . . Milk has to be shipped in. So does ice cream. All post office boxes have been rented and the general delivery line is a block long all day. Six big gambling casinos are operating. About the only thing Las Vegas doesn't need is restaurants. We've got 57 now. There are seven drug stores and 50 groceries. But the town has only six policemen and none in uniform."

*Although Secretary Wilbur changed the name of the dam from Boulder to Hoover, the construction centre did not become Hoover City.

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