CHARLES H. JANSSEN:

Charles H. Janssen apparently arrived in Saint Paul around 1910. He worked as a bookkeeper for James T. Ingersoll Co., dealers in dental supplies (1910). By 1916 he was a "credit man" for Holm & Olson, a St. Paul florist and nursery firm. He later worked as a credit manager and office manager for Michaud Bros., a St. Paul-based wholesale and retail grocery firm (late 1910s and early 1920s).

Janssen became secretary of the St. Paul Retail Grocers Association in 1924. He was secretary-manager of the National Association of Retail Grocers (1927-1934), and editor of its trade publication, the National Grocers Bulletin.

He served as head of the National Food and Grocery Distributors' Code Authority (1934-1935), a National Recovery Administration agency charged with effecting application of standards of fair practice in competition in the food and grocery industry. Janssen was a top official of the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers (1936-1940), and secretary-manager of its successor, the National Margarine Institute (1941-1942).

In October 1942 Janssen became head of the Retailer-Wholesaler Section of the Office of Price Administration's Food Rationing Division, a federal agency established in 1941 to prevent undue price rises and to provide for the fair distribution of products in short supply during World War II. He served in this capacity until July 1943, when he left to become associate director of the Food Industry War Committee, an industry-wide committee of manufacturers, processors, and wholesale, intermediate, and retail distributors established in 1943 to deal with wartime problems affecting the food industry.

Janssen retired from business life in 1946 and made his home in St. Paul. He died of a heart ailment on January 18, 1960.

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Includes business correspondence and memoranda, telegrams, circular letters, pamphlets and other publications, research reports, newsletters, newspaper clippings and editorials, executive and administrative orders, speeches, minutes, a scrapbook, and other miscellaneous papers. There are a few photographs in the scrapbook.

There is information about Janssen's activities as an official of the various food and grocery industry trade associations and federal agencies in which he was involved; the regulation of competition in the retail food and grocery trades (1934-1935); the Supreme Court decision declaring the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional, and the subsequent dissolution of the National Food and Grocery Distributors' Code Authority (1935); and food and grocery distribution and rationing during World War II (1943-1944).

Information about the margarine industry focuses on the advertising and promotion of margarine, tax issues, legislation, relations with the dairy industry, and the succession of the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers by the National Margarine Institute (1941) and the subsequent dissolution of that organization (1942). There are also margarine production statistics (1941).

Correspondents include Janssen and his superiors and subordinates, grocery industry executives, and officials of industry groups, trade associations, and federal agencies.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Charles H. Janssen Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,279

Processing Information:

Processed by: David B. Peterson, April 1998

Catalog ID number: 990017348280104294

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Copies of the National Grocers Bulletin are in the Minnesota Historical Society serials collection.

A photographic copy of a recognition certificate awarded to Janssen by the United War Work Campaign (1918) is found in the Daughters of the American Revolution, St. Paul Chapter papers in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Food industry and trade.

Grocery trade.

Margarine industry.

New Deal, 1933-1939.

Rationing.

Trade and professional associations -- Officials and employees.

Trade regulations.

Place:

United States -- Economic policy -- 1933-1945.

Organizations:

Food Industry War Committee.

National Association of Margarine Manufacturers.

National Association of Retail Grocers.

National Food and Grocery Distributors' Code Authority.

National Margarine Institute.

United States. National Recovery Administration.

United States. Office of Price Administration. Food Rationing Division. Retailer-Wholesaler Section.

Types of Documentation:

Speeches.

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