cceed in winning the war.

----
"TO THE COLORS!"
----

With this issue THE STARS AND STRIPES reports for active service with
the A. E. F. It is _your_ paper, and has but one axe to grind--the axe
which our Uncle Samuel is whetting on the grindstone for use upon the
august necks of the Hapsburgs and the Hohenzollerns.

THE STARS AND STRIPES is unique in that every soldier purchaser, every
soldier subscriber, is a stockholder and a member of the board of
directors. It isn't being run for any individual's profit, and it serves
no class but the fighting men in France who wear the olive drab and the
forest green. Its profits go to the company funds of the soldier
subscribers, and the staff of the paper isn't paid a sou.

If you don't find in this, your own weekly, the things in which you are
particularly interested, write to the editors, and if it is humanly
possibly they will dig up the stuff you want. There are so many of you
over here now, and so many different sorts of you, that it is more than
likely that some of your hobbies have been overlooked in this our first
number. Let us know.

We want to hear from that artist in your outfit, that ex-newspaper
reporter, that short story writer, that company "funny man," and that
fellow who writes the verses. We want to hear from all of you--for THE
STARS AND STRIPES is your paper, first, last and all the time; for you
and for those of your friends and relatives to whom you will care to
send it.

THE STARS AND STRIPES is up at the top o' the mast for the duration of
the war. It will try to reach every one of you, every week--mud,
shell-holes and fog notwithstanding. It will yield rights of the roadway
only to troops and ambulances, food, ammunition and guns, and the
paymaster's car. It has a big job ahead to prove worthy of its namesake,
but, with the help of all of you, it will, in good old down east
parlance, "do its gol-derndest" to deliver the goods. So--For-_ward_!
MARCH!

----
FATHER ABRAHAM.
----

Just one hundred and nine years ago this coming February 12, there was
born, in what was then the backwoods of Kentucky, the man whose career
is most symbolic of the equality of opportunity afforded by our common
country. By dint of hard work, laboring under the spell of poverty and
of