The greatest blessing that he has conferred on New York, is helping the
poor to get pure, sterilized milk. No work of beneficence ever before
showed such surprising results. It has reduced the death rate of
infants over fifty per cent. Formerly, almost seventy-five per cent. of
the children of the very poor died.
It was in the summer of 1893 that Mr. Strauss opened his first milk
depot, at which milk was sold for four cents a quart; one and one-half
cents a bottle for sterilized pure milk; one cent a bottle (six
ounces,) for modified milk, and one cent a glass for pure milk.
It was a loss to the benefactor, but he established other depots
throughout the unhealthy portions of the city and in the parks. Doctors
received blanks to fill out for milk for those unable to purchase, and
to such it was given free. A doctor’s prescription was honored. What
followed? The death rate was reduced.
At the instigation of his son,—who died from a cold contracted in
distributing coal,—coal yards had been established on the docks and
elsewhere. The dealers at that time were retailing coal at ten cents
and fourteen cents a basket, which made the price from twelve dollars
to sixteen dollars per ton. At Mr. Strauss’ depots, five-cent tickets
procured twenty and twenty-five pounds; ten-cent tickets, forty and
fifty pounds, and so on. Most of the coal was carried in baskets on
the shoulders and backs of those who, in some cases, had walked miles
to obtain it. During the last financial panic, grocery stores were
started, where five cents procured a large amount of food. Lodging
houses were opened, while a clean bed and a breakfast of coffee and
bread could be procured for five cents, and lunch rooms where two cents
purchased bread and coffee and corned beef.
The great financier, J. Pierpont Morgan, asked Mr. Strauss to be
permitted to assist him in the grocery stores, and a large central
depot was rented at 345 Grand street, for which Mr. Morgan furnished
the money and Mr. Strauss acted as manager.
Although all these charities in which Mr. Strauss has been interested
have entailed a steady loss, a great number of those he benefited and
benefits are under the impression that he does not sustain a loss, and
that they merely buy for less than they would pay elsewhere.