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Straus (NATHAN an American merchant)

NATHAN, an American merchant and philanthropist, born in Rhenish Bavaria in 1848. At the age of six he came to the United States with his family. He was educated in the public schools of Talbotton, Ga., and at Packard's Business College. In 1866 he became a member of his father's firm, NATHAN STRAUS engaged in the import of pottery and glassware. From 1888 to 1914 he was a partner in R. H. Macy & Co. and from 1892 to 1914 a partner in Abraham & Straus, two of the largest New York City department stores. From 1889 to 1893 he was park commissioner of New York City; in 1898 president of the Board of Health, New York City; in 1911 United States delegate to the In- STRAUSS ternational Congress for the Protection of Infants at Berlin, and in 1912 to the Tuberculosis Congress at Rome. After his retirement from active business in 1914, he devoted his time exclusively to the many charitable enterprises in which he had been interested for many years. The charity with which his name is especially associated, was the laboratory and distribution system for pasteurized milk to the poor of New York City, resulting in the saving of many thousands of infants annually. After carrying on this work for many years at his own expense he turned the entire plant over to the City of New York as a gift. He also installed similar systems in many other cities of the United States and abroad. His gifts for other charitable purposes were large. Amongst them should be mentioned the installation and maintenance of depots for the distribution of coal to the poor in New York City, the establishment in 1912 of soup kitchens in Jerusalem, the establishment of a health bureau in Palestine, etc. Besides making many addresses on the pasteurization of milk and on other public topics, he wrote "Disease in Milk-the Remedy, Pasteurization" (1917).