Las Vegas Age

INFALLIBLE INDEX

THE CONDITION of a community's banks

is an infallible index of the condition of

the community business.

The statement of the First State bank of

Las Vegas published in The Age of yester-

day compared with the statement of a year

ago must convince even the most skeptical of

the trend of Las Vegas, of its growth and the

general prosperity of business.

Another thing worthy of note at this time

is that the First State bank has over 60 per

cent of its assets in cash and liquid securities,

which is at least twice the amount considered

amply sufficient and four times the require-

ments of the state and national banking de-

partments, which require a bank to keep

15 per cent of its assets liquid.

Since January 1, 1930, one year ago, the

deposits, assets and cash reserve of banks

generally have been going down. This has

not been the case with the Las Vegas banks.

The First State bank has shown an unus-

ual growth during the past year. Its deposits

have increased almost half a million, $458,

032.53 to be exact, since the bank statement

of one year ago.

Its loans have increased approximately

$100,000 during the same period and its

liquid assets increased approximately $600,

000.

This official, sworn record cannot be in-

terpreted otherwise than as representing the

same proportional gain in the every day bus-

iness of the community, coupled with bank-

ing ability far above the average.

As a matter of fact Las Vegas has been

prosperous. The only distressing thing here

has been the news from the outside world.