AN INSPIRED MILKMAN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 79, 23 September 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN INSPIRED MILKMAN

AA'OUK OF lIERR BOLLK, OF BERLIN. "Gcrmay has a romantic story in the rise of her home, missionary, lle'rr Nolle, and his great milk industry," says Ella rise of her home missionary, Ilerr Bolle, Gilbert Ives in the Boston Transcript, "Bolle, peasant born, deeply religious, early became a foreign missionary, lost his health, and stranded in his 'native Germany, looked about for an opportunity of service. This was back in the seventies of the last century. The 'MilkWar' had not been decided, but conditions were preparing. This good and great Bolle saw the children of the poor m the city of Berlin dying by thousands, and traced one'cause—a chief one—poor milk. He studied the ease 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 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 18S7 he bought s'/ 3 acres of land in Moabit, a suburb of Berlin, erected two large buildings for his milk dairy and depot, and a villa for his family. * In ,1894 the business was employing one thousand men and sixty women at the works, and sending out daily 200 delivery waggons. In 1004 the dairy farm was enlarged by the purchase of a neighboring site; and to-day, 10,10, the great establishment is the largest in Germany, if not in the world. Twenty-four thousand cows supply eighty-five thousand Berlin families with pure milk at prices within reach of the poor. Twenty-four thousand workmen are employed"; 300 cars, with 4i>() horses, carry on the traffic. Fifty electric, motors'drive the machinery, and 400 incandescent lights, with 80 arc lumps, illuminate the works. "But the figures that count most in estimating the value of. the enterprise are the percentages of mortality. From IS7O. 30 per cent.; from 1800 to 1900, 23.20 per cent.; from 1900 to 1010, 19 per cent. This improvement is largely attributed to the direct agency of the Bolle milk, plus the indirect 'influence in raising the standard of other milk supply. It is a goodly sight, well worth a trip to Moabit. when the vast threestoreyed buildings of the dairyworks catch the sunlight on their multitudinous windows and toss it back to the surrounding dwellings and halls that complete this ideal industrial community. For this wise missionary had other projects incidental but not less praiseworthy, in carrying out his milk industry. Not only would he save human lives by supplying hygienic food at prices not prohibitive to the poor, but also he would save the souls of men and women by treating his employees 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 a great milk-waggon; the latter rectangular, white; one comportment close-locked, with shining faucets in the side —tampering with the milk being thus guarded against. Over the top is the familiar sign 'G. Bolle.' In the rear are two lads in uniform. Turning the faucet is Heinrich, the milkman, also well fed and groomed, in bine 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. lie may have left at home a sick wife or child; if so, she will be cared for by a visiting deaconess. His little ones are in the free kindergarten. His convalescent child is recuperating in the Holiday Home, supported by a fresh-air fund for 'Bolle children.' His -older boys and girls are engaged 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 a men's choir, one hundred strong—all drivers of milkwaggons or teamsters. His oldest son plays the violin, and is headed for the Bolle orchestra, Heinrieh's brother is not musical, but deft-handed. He belongs to the class in scroll sawing, and has climbed from pupil to teaelier. He will show you with pride the carved work (lone by himself and other employees to beautify the chapel built for them by the good Bolle. It seats 1.600 and is well filled. Those who distribute milk on Sunday morning have a special afternoon service. Another is hold 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 is none the less thrifty himself. Industry is here a plant of native growth. Bolle's 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 labor is here inculcated and practised. The people of 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 Moabit with clockwork regularity. Compute, if you can. the effect of this upon (he forming characters of 'Bolle children.' Little ones in Berlin also benefit from the daily lesson. The very sprinkling cart is a 'AVnsser Bolle.'"*