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ZINN THE POLITICIAN Top plank in my platform—Devotion to Duty. —Campaign Blotter for Fred Zinn Frank Zinn, Fred’s brother, had borne a burden far different from Fred’s travels abroad. During the Great War he and brother Donald had been left behind with their father August to manage the mill operations in Galesburg and Battle Creek. Frank witnessed the horrible strain and stress that Fred placed on the family at home, especially when word arrived that Fred had been killed in the trenches of Champagne only to be discovered to be alive a few days later. When the Great War was over, his older brother the celebrity was handed control of the family business. When Fred took off again in World War II he left Frank, now a successful attorney with RCA in New York, to run the business in Michigan and handle Fred’s personal affairs. Dr. Karl Zinn, their brother, had already enlisted in the service. Frank and his younger brother Don were pressed into helping with the administration of the mill while Frank was still in New York. The brothers Zinn shouldered the burden of the family business, and when Fred returned from war, again, they handed the business back. The Transit Warehouse Company, the holding company for A. K. Zinn, was no longer the same business it had been before the war. The Galesburg operations were now only a minor part of the business, with most of the work being done by operations in Battle Creek and Jackson. Before Fred left for war the longtime administrator for Transit Warehouse , Fern Smiley, died, leaving the bookkeeping of the mill in the hands of one lone clerk. The miller in Galesburg, a Mr. Struble, injured his hand just after Fred left for Algiers.1 Combined, these two incidents, along with Fred’s departure, left the milling operation at a de‹cit. Upon 184 11 Fred’s return he was not grateful to his brothers for their hard work and sacri‹ce as much as he was shocked at how the business had suffered. Frank Zinn was living in New York, traveling when he could back to Michigan to attempt to oversee the affairs there. Donald Zinn had more of a back-of‹ce role in running the business, coordinating with Frank as much as possible and doing what he could to oversee the business day to day. Brother Frank kept a home in nearby Marshall, where he lived when visiting the area and during the summer months. His remote management of the operations combined with the injury of the on-site supervisor left the company in a strained state when Fred returned to Battle Creek.2 While other companies had ›ourished during the war years, pro‹ting from wartime sales, the A. K. Zinn Company had lost sales. The Caribbean contracts that had proved so pro‹table before the war had evaporated when shipping ground to a halt during the war years. While Kellogg and Post still generated steady demand, the sales of feed products had dropped off with a wave of new competition in the market. Fred’s father still was involved with the mill but had taken a backseat to his sons’ management. Fred jumped back into the family business, but at the same time his relations with his younger brother Frank became strained as a result of Frank and Don’s management of the family holdings. Fred struggled to restore Transit Warehouse to pro‹tability within a year, but the emotional baggage with Frank was something both men carried for the rest of their lives. As with any family business there were disagreements as to the management of operations, and it is also suspected that Fred may have been lax in his tax payments, adding to the family tensions around the running of the mill.3 In 1947 Fred, weary of the business and possibly the strain it was causing between him and his brothers, stepped down as president and entered semiretirement. He sold his shares of the mill to Donald and Frank. Donald Zinn became the company president, and Frank became the vice president and treasurer. Fred still dabbled in some real estate purchases in the form of rental properties and for several years attempted to live the life of a retired businessman.4 It was not a role he was destined to play for long. When Bud returned home from the war he was a decorated hero. The family held a...

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