MAINLY ABOUT RENO

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 March 1933, Page 10

MAINLY ABOUT RENO

WHERE WEST IS “WILD.” Martin Moore, London “Daily Telegraph” special representative touring U.S.A., writing from Reno, states: — If States chose arms and mottoes to match their ideals, Nevada’s device would' be a wide open door surmounted by the Rabelaisian exhortation, ‘ Do what you will.” For Nevada’s ideal is personal liberty. This is still frontier territory, drawing its population from all the States of the Union, and from all nationalities in the world. Even today Nevadans still retain much of the free and easy, untrammelled outlook of fortune-seekers. Nevada is proud of its freedom, too, and likes to boast that it is the only State in America where the “wildness” of the West is no story-book fiction, but a modern fact. Even in the streets of Reno you may still see genuine cowboys, wearing ten-gallon bats and liigh-hccled boots. And' up bi the mountains yon may still encounter gold prospectors —only to-day they carry their picks and chov-Js, not on a pack-donkey, but in the hack scat of a Ford. Drinking am! gambling have always been the traditional rclazaEon:-. of the “wild” West, ami Nevada's icg.h-Jator;-. do not mean to deprive the Jas’ surviving Westerners oi ’esse pas’jajos. This; is the only Hta’c. m the Union where games oi chau'w and within its h r .:<:<■!> enough gambling ccm-. to satisfy the gambling </' America. Nevada is, of course, subject to the F< dcra! o: : • ;0.-. laws as any other part o’

But the State Legi. let refused to co-operate %)';.- ton in enforcing ::o A-/.-.w. ;. measure. In practice, the.-■■■. has remained a, dead letter Throughout more than JJb.bbO square miles over which Nevada/:; territory extends there have n'-.ve. at any time been more than live resident federal enforcement oil) cers. Consequently, the door:-; ol the saloons are almost a.s wide open as those of the gaming hoime.s. But freedom is more than an intellectual ideal here. Like other Amari cans, the Nevadans expect their ideal:; to pay; and they have been so busily “cashing in” on liberty that they have only just begun to ask: “What is the slump?” The legalisation of gambling in 1!)31 opened the door for what seemed an endless carnival of tourists. Krom all over America men and women will; money to burn came pouring into Reno, turning the quiet county town into a city of perpetual gala. In almost every street gaming clubs alternate with luxury stores where the fortunate might spend their winnings, or speakeasies where the luckless might drown the memory of their losses. Immediately gam bl in:.-, was legalised some 600 games of clianc<. were licensed in Washoe County alone, almost all of them in Reno. Similar "'gold' rush” scenes were, witnessed in Carson City, La.s Vegas, and all tinother little towns in Nevada. Brom these gambling houses State, county, and city all took toll in license fees’

What matter if the price of silver and copper slumped at unheard-of levels? Who but the ranchers cared if live-stock were not worth the rais-

ing? Nevada substituted the whirring ball and the rattling dice for the abandoned mines and deserted cattle ranches. Money came pouring in from all over the United States, and business boomed. Rents rocketed skyhigh; hotels and apartment-houses were crammed; shops were filled with expensive merchandise. THE DIVORCE MILL. Every road leading to Reno, for miles before the city is reached, is an unbroken ribbon of pleasure resorts. The Rainbow Garden, the Cow Shed, the Doll House, the Heidelberg Inn—their very names suggest the gay suburbs of a town given over to money-spending and amusement. In between these resorts are innumerable “auto camps”—little townships of brightly painted cottages, where those unable to find accommodation in Reno may have a bed and bath under the same roof as they garage their cars. The prosperity brought by the gamblers has been supplemented by Nevada’s other industry—the “divorce mill.'’ There is a. good deal of misunderstanding about this activity, which has made the name of Jjtil*', obscure Reno k nown f hrotighc.iit the world. Divorce in Nevada, is not. easier Ilian anywlmre else, but simply quicker.

| “..Junta! cruelty,” “incompafability of 1 tomjjei ament.,’ ’ami other freak I ground:-; tor dissolution of marriage 'find i:'> jda.ee in the Nevadan code. ißut. onc< : ;> divorce has been granted, .the jj.-irti'--; to re-marry withJ.n the hour and many of them do. In va.ua';-: Jaw differ:-:, for instance, Ithat of California, which will I moi .-ia.ge on small pretext, '.'cma/id-; n mtervaJ of one year e before t-,<. decree is a bsol uf.c. t '/■■■ <-•.-<// dr-: <juic)< p rocc-.-::; of law >■■■. ii:.-; 1.0 Nevada., nor is if. Ihe ; .-.0.'.-g'.ej. f.hal. draw:; Hie unhappily '■■: ::io Jo-mo. What attract:; film ■ if'ini Hollywood ano 1 Society ;-.'d/h-. f/om York m I he f act t hat I?’- ! a!« : >. only six week:-: to become a '.Ez'.'i of Nevada, entitled to Iho ; f.chefjt.n of ii . legal code. Other State:; {nave ea-uc; dj voi'ei-, and other Slate:; P'dl'/w i‘ /na/riapc jiiiil a-; speedily; I but jiowh'-je <•!;;(; can the outsider Italic cil.ize/mhij) on such short residence. Whal.e.vcr the merit.- of its Ja.w, Nevada.’,-: “divorce mill” is really a. lawyer:;’ “racket." Reno ha:: fewer than 20, <)*)*) m habit ants, but. there are more ifiaii J3h divorce lawyers in the town B'-lw'i-'-ii them they receive some, 7a*),(ibi) dollars a. year in fees, while the court ant horities get 136,011*) dollars lor filing the. applications. Until Iwo years ago the divorce mill used Io work, quite profitably on the three months’ residential qualification then in force. But Arkansas: and Idaho cast envious eyes on the lucrative business, and amended' their statutes to allow a similar three months’ qualification for citizenship. Small wonder that the Nevadan attorneys wore alarmed. and look steps io kceji their own State preeminent by bringing in the sj x weeks’ la w.

Unlike - oim- ot her "racket s.” this Hu- full support of file whole frading; community. On a rough cal'ulafion. each candidate for divorce s l "ti'ls f wo months in t he Staff', qualifying for citizenship ;md attending Gouri proceedings. The money which those visitors, with their .attendant witnesses and .friends, bring into Nevada is a highl.v important economic factor in a State whose chief

industry—mining—is virtually at a standstill. But if the divorce clientele is still a fairly steady source of' income, the gambling boom has collapsed like a pricked balloon. You enter Reno’s principal street under an illuminated arch, which bids you welcome to “the biggest little city in the world.” Today that welcome seems to mock rhe town’s quenched gaiety. Reno is desolate, as only a city of pleasure can be when the pleasure-seekers have departed. WEALTH IN THE HILLS. For* the -wealthy plungers who flocked to Reno after the gamblinglaw was passed have grown tired of losing their money, or no longer have any to lose. The gaming houses have had to fall back on a local clientele that considers 25c a big stake. Twothirds of these resorts are now closed; am’ it is said that only a couple of those remaining are making a profit from the tables, though others may recoup themselves by dispensingillicit liquor. Tim slum]) that seemed to have passed Nevada, by has come at. last. Thirteen banks closed in a single day, and. the State woke up tn find itself poor. There wjore only twenty-six banks in this thinly populated territory, and twelve of those now shut belong to a single chain, with local deposits amounting to 17,000,000 dollars. Reno alone has 10,000,000 dollars tied up in closed banks.

Nevada’s real industry is not gambling and divorce, but mining. Almost every known metal except tin can be produced in commercial uantities from these, waterless, sun-baked hills. Not. for nothing is Nevada called the Silver State. Yet silver is I not, worth mining at. present prices. iOf tlic onc (; profitable lead and zim mines, not. one is working, find proIduct.ion of quicksilver has virtually ceased. Lid. Nevada still preserves an optimism as boundless as its desei r. acres. Of its 72,00(1,000 acres, only 3,000,000 could' ever be cultivate! 1 , even if all the Slate’s waler supplii' : I were perfect ly distributedi I mml may be Imp lor Ihe askim , | lor 63,000,000 acre:; are still unre - served find una ppro pr ial cd. Some|wl)<rc in that wilderness of yellow hills ;i prospect or will one dav i-.trik gold. Why not. to-morrow.’ That j .Nevada’s hope.