| Show mystery platinum bill puzzles congress BILL which would turn over A to n group of oc individuals whose identity la is obscured cured by a strange curtain of mystery almost all tho the vast wealth of alaska for private exploitation Is now pending in the public lands committee of the house of representatives in washington so immense are the riches that would by this bill be presented to private interests that government dais dont even try to estimate it their wile i ale hazard Is untold millions the bill has haa passed unnoticed in lie committee for weeks under its unrevealing title 11 II it 2861 only one individual Is named as a recipient lie ile la Is L it il beckley Bec kloy an eccentric retired lawyer of seventy years or more who lives alone with ills his wife on the top floor of a gloomy old house at no logan street in an obscure section of brooklyn berkley and hla his associates un or dej she ehe terms of the bill would be i organized lito into united states platt to this corpora ilon would be turned over ever all the platinum sands owned and controlled by tile the united states govern government meAt in III and about the public domains of alaska in return for this munificence the corporation of beckley and his associates so socia tes wout would d report as a royalty or subsidy one eighth of the net products obtained in alaska from the platinum sands to tile the united states government the extent of 0 the platinum sands now resting in the river beds of 0 alaska hau haa never been computed but they tire are reported to be extremely valuable the united states geological survey has blis determined that platinum sands of various degrees of wealth are ara scattered all over alaska mixed with these sands ure are gold and other valuable minerals of equal or even greater richness to give tho the platinum sands of alaska away according to george otla otis smith head ot the ecological re survey would amount to a blanket gift of most of alaska itself |
