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Show MIL OFFICIALS HERE Oi INSPECTION TOUR Regional Director and Party Par-ty Make Short Stop on Way to Coast. A special train of five cars arrived yesterday yes-terday over tlje Denver & Rio Grande railroad en route to California carrying the officials of the United States railroad administration, who are making an Inspection In-spection tour over the railroads of the western district. The tour Is being made under the supervision su-pervision . of Hale Holden, regional director di-rector of the central western district, whose headquarters are in Chicago. Mr. Holden is accompanied by the assistant regional director, B. B. Greer.' Mr. Holden stated that in the past ninety days he had personally inspected more than 50,000 miles of railroads. The condition of the railroads is better at tho present time, he says, than when they wfcre taken over by the government. govern-ment. He can foresee no friction whatever what-ever between the corporate owners and the government on account of depreciation deprecia-tion when the railroads are handed back to private ownership, as the corporate officers and the federal officials are closely close-ly cooperating along this line. He states that on all Inspection trips, officials of the line being inspected accompany him. When asked as to the probability of the government's retaining control of the railroads rail-roads permanently, he replied : "The taking over of the railroads was only a war measure to facilitate the handling of troops and war material and now that the war is over there is no reason for the government's retaining the railroads." Among the other officials of the party were the corporate officers of the Western West-ern Pacific. They are C. M. Levey, president; A. R. Baldwin, vice president and general counsel; T. J. Wyche, chief engineer. 1 W. R. S'cott, federal manager, western district; William Sproul, district director; W. H. Kirkbride, federal chief engineer Southern Pacific railroad; H. R. Safford, engineer assistant to regional director at Chicago; J. H. Dyer, general manager Southern Pacific railroad; J. H. Knowles, federal chief engineer Western Pacific railroad, were the remaining members of the party. The party left this morning at 6 o'clock for San Francisco via the Western Pacific. |