With migrant caravans heading north from Central America, it is hard to argue that tiny nations such as El Salvador are anything but sad failures. That does not mean there was not a style, even a grandiosity. When that was lavished on an organization that actually worked, what a great stamp. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
In 1940, El Salvador celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Pan American Union. An angel smiles down on the Western Hemisphere’s half of the globe while a big modern airliner speeds our mail from place to place. The angel holds a fig leave conferring peace on the blessed below. The stamp was printed by the American Bank Note Company in America. I wonder if their designers did a double take when they heard what the Salvadorans wanted.
Todays stamp is issue C71, a 30 Centavo airmail stamp issued by El Salvador on May 22nd, 1940. It was a two stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. If a stamp this dramatic is still only worth the nominal value for any stamp at nearly 80 years old, I suggest the Salvadorans leave their stamp collections behind when they pack up to head north.
The Pan American Union was first suggested by Latin American independence hero Simon Bolivar at a conference in Panama City, Gran Columbia in 1826. He imagined a Western Hemisphere with a united foreign policy and military and a legislature drawn from all the member states. USA readers will understand how such a thing would favor small states over big ones like the Electoral College and the Senate. This is by design because how else to get small states to join just to be dominated by larger neighbors. The idea went nowhere as soon Latin America was breaking apart with civil wars and instability.
In 1890 a new conference was organized in Washington with more modest goals of international cooperation and conflict arbitration. Thus the Pan American Union was founded and a headquarters building was built in Washington out of the generosity of Andrew Carnegie. The true genius of the organization came in when it was agreed that a conflict between two members would see the neutrality of the rest. Thus avoiding the real prospect of alliance continental wars that the League of Nations was not able to prevent in Europe.
Post World War II, the Pan American Union was refashioned as the Organization of American States and took on an added goal of fighting communism. This was at the instruction of the USA, and probably had some people in the smaller states pining for Simon Bolivar’s electoral college. At age 80, the OAS continues, still in Carnegie’s Pan American Union Building. The current leader is Luis Almagro, a Uruguayan diplomat who is active in promoting migration and by extension economic equalization. This potential conflict with USA President Trump might prove an interesting test as to whether big states or small states currently hold sway at the OAS. That presumes of course that the OAS even has a seat at the table.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the grandiosity of 1940s El Salvador. Sometime even if the reality is something less, it is worthwhile to dream big. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting