The clipper, Vol. 1, No. 5, November 1944

              VOL. 1—NO. 5
NEW YORK
NOVEMBER, 1944
President Trippe Honored by Foundation
Receives First America’s Award
James A. Farley presents the Americas Award to President Juan T. Trippe while John A. Zellers, President of the Americas Foundation, and Sumner Welles, former Undersecretary of State, look on.
Declaring that Juan T. Trippe has made the greatest contribution to inter-American friendship and good will of any citizen of the Americas during 1944, the Americas Foundation has cited Pan American World Airways’ president for its first “America’s Award.”
The award, which was made to Mr. Trippe at the annual “Birthday of the Americas” dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, October 12, was presented by James A. Farley. The former. Posmaster General hailed Mr. Trippe as a pioneer in building the good will of the Americas.
The citation read:
“Whereas, The Americas Foundation is dedicated to the cause of unity among the nations of the New World as the greatest single contribution our peoples can make toward that lasting peace on earth to which all mankind aspires, and
“Whereas, that unity must be manifest in the lives and works of countless fellow Americans as well as in the official acts of our respective governments, and
“Whereas, the public recognition annually of the great and good deeds of those Americans who have done most to achieve this unity serves to stimulate and inspire others to similar acts of fealty and friendship, and
“Whereas, the Birthday of the Americas is the most appropriate occasion each year for such recognition, now therefore be it
“Resolved, that The Americas Foundation on the 452nd Birthday of the Americas hereby presents this scroll to Juan Terry Trippe, President of Pan American World Airways, the modern Columbus of the air and outstanding contributor to the solidarity of the Americas, in signal recognition of his contributions to New World unity and friendship.”
In accepting the “Americas Award”, Mr. Trippe said:
“The thousands of men and women in our System’s Latin American service should receive this award. And I include the many hundreds of men and women of the splendid national airlines of Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, who are all associated with the Pan American Airways System in Latin America.
“With your permission, then, I will pass on this award to those without whom it
could never have been earned: to the faithful weather observer at his high post in the Andes; to the mechanic at the Santos Dumont airport in Rio de Janeiro; to the traffic men in three hundred cities “south of the border” who are expediting passengers and important wartime air express; to the master pilots and flight crews who, at this moment, are bringing Buenos Aires closer to New York, Los Angeles closer to Lima, and all of us assembled here closer to our sister nations on the south.
“From the very beginning of our international service in 1927, Pan American Airways has sought also to develop domestic air transport in all our sister nations to the south; to connect with local services all important cities and to open up their rich, vast, and still undeveloped territories. Unlike the German airline, Lufthansa, technicians were not imported from abroad to operate domestic airlines—instead we have trained the citizens of the various Republics in air transportation. And now, these efficient national airlines are all managed locally
—their flight personnel, their ground staffs, their managers are native-born, not foreigners. As a result, our sister nations are very properly proud of their national airlines. And we in North America are true partners and not exploiters.
“Think of an international airline, for a moment, as only a fleet of planes flying between two points, one in the United States and one abroad. How in any sort of democratic society would such aircraft be able long to operate without the support and goodwill of the passengers who might want to fly? How would the airline be able to carry air mail without the willingness of the governments concerned? How would it be able to build, up cargo business without the support of the shippers of the countries concerned?
“An international airline, to be an instrument of progress, must also enjoy the confidence and support of the average man and woman in all the countries to which it flies.
(Continued on page 4)
PAM AMERICAN