AN INSPIRED MILKMAN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 397, 20 September 1911, Page 7

AN INSPIRED MILKMAN.

"Germany has a romantic story in the rise of her home, missionary, I Herr Bolle, and his great milk indus- ] try," writes Ella Gilbert Ives in the Boston Transcript. "Bolle, peasantborn, deeply religious, early becam-3 a foreign missionary, lost his health, and, stranded in his native Germany, looked about fur an opportunity of ssr- i vice. This was back in the seventies of the last century. The 'milk war' | had to be declared, but conditions j were preparing. Thi3 good and great j Bolle saw the children of the poor in : the city of Berlin dying by thousands, j and traced one cause—a chief onepoor milk. He studied the case and | set about its remedy. He said: ! 'Let me fail in trying to do something ' rather than sit still and do nothing.' ' But such men do not fail.

"In 1880 Bolle, poor in purse but j rich in purpose, started three milk waggons carrying pure milk at a moderate price. The time was ripe, the response immediate, the business grew. In 1887 he bought 5a acres of land in Moabit, a suburb of Berlin, i erected two large buildings for his ; milk dairy and depot, and a villa for i his family. In 1894 the business was i employing one thousand men and : sixty women at the works, and send- j ing out daily 200 delivery waggons. In 1904 the. dairy farm was enlarged j by purchase of a neighbouring site; and to-day, 1911, the great establish- j ment is the largest in German*', if not ; in the world. Twenty-four thousand : cows supply eighty-five thousand Ber- i lin families with pure milk at prices i within reach of the poor. Twenty- , four thousand workmen are busied; ; 300 cars, with 450 horses, carry on \ the traffic. Fifty electric motors ; drive the machinery, and 4000 incan- '. descent lights, with SO arc lamps, \ illuminate the works. \

"But the figures that count most in estimating the value of the enter- ! prise are the percentages of mor- , tality. From 1870, 30 per cent, of j the Berlin children died during their j first year; from 18S0 to IS9O, 27.10 percent.; from 1890 to 1900, 23.20 j per cent.: from 1900 to 1910, 19 per cent. This improvement is largely I attributed to the direct agency of the Belie milk, plus the irdirect influence j in raising the standard of other milk supply. It is a goodly sight, well i worth a trip to Moabit, when the vast i three-storeyed buildings of the dairy j works catch the sunlight on their mul- ! titudinous windows and toss it back ! to the surrounding dwellings and halls-i that complete this ideal industrial community. For this wise mission- ; ary had other projects, incidental but j no less praiseworthy, in carrying out, j his milk industry. Not only would he ; save human lives by supplying hygienic j food at prices not prohibitive to the : poor, but also he would save the souls j of men and women by treating his em- j ployess as his brethren. "The story of his benefactions, ; which were also business investments of a high order, might be told by moving pictures. One of these is daily ; seen in Berlin streets —a well-fed and | groomed horse harnessed to great milkwaggon; the latter rectangular, j white; one compartment close-locked, | with shining faucets in the side— | tampering with the milk being thus i guarded against. Over the top is j the familiar sign 'G. Bolle.' In the j rear are two lads in uniform. Turning j the faucet is Heinrich, the milkman, also well fed and groomed, in blue denim suit and white apron, fresh

laundered at the public works, his figure trim, his face pleasant. No wonder; he is well paid and cared for in his higher interests. His working hours are from 5.30 a.m. to 3 p.m. •He may have left at home a sick wife or child; if so, she will be cared for by a visiting deaconness. His little ones are in the free kindergartn. His convalescent child is recuperating in the Holiday Home, spuporced by a fresh-air fund for 'Bolle children.' His older boys and girls are enrolled in the singing classes, and look forward eagerly to Wednesday and Saturday afternoons —the time of meeting in the hall. There, too, they go with their parents for lectures and concerts. Heinrich himself is in the men's choir, one hundred strong— ail drivers of milk waggons or teamsters. His oldest son plays the violin, and is headed for the Bolle orchestra. Heinrich's brother is not musical, but deft handed. He belongs to the class in scroll sawing, and has climbed from pupii to teacher. He will show you with pride the carved work done by himself and other employees to beautify the chapel built for them by good Bolle. It seats 1600, and is well filled. Those who distribute milk on Sunday morning have a special afternoon service. Another is held on Saturday afternoon, and the children are gathered into Sunday school.

" Heinrich knows that if his Gretchen were widowed she would be cared for by the fund; but he ia none the less thrifty himself. Industry is here a plant of native growth. Bolle'a workmen are encouraged to save by this device —they are given 5 per cent, on their savings, one and two-thirds of this being the gift of the firm. Nothing in this great industrial scheme is left to chance. Order, system, punctuality—every virtue known to labour is here inculcated and practised. The people in Berlin tell the time of day by the milkman's cart. At certain hours, from all directions, hundreds of delivery waggons stream toward or from Mobait, with clock work regularity. Compute, if you can, the effect of this upon thd forming characters of "Bolle children." Little ones in Beriln also benefit from the daily lesson. The very sprinkling cart is a Wahser Bolle.' "