standing and appreciating the motives, the traditions, and the sentiments which have given birth to these various symbols of sovereignty, the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY presents this work, devoted to the flags of all countries.

In the present world struggle, in which the United States of America is now engaged, we of this land hold to the ideals represented in the history and the promise of the Stars and Stripes-the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness safeguarded for all mankind.

And though many must fall in the achievement of those ideals, a noble and imperishable good will endure as a monument to their sacrifice. History can bestow upon such soldiers no higher en

comium than that of Defenders of the Flag.

In presenting 1,197 flags in accurate colors and design, the plates of which were utilized for this volume, the SOCIETY issued the most expensive, instructive, and beautiful number of its magazine in the history of periodical literature.

THE BIG TASK OF MAKING THE FLAG NUMBER

In assembling the flags of the world, in choosing the correct from the spurious designs, and in mobilizing, so to speak, the flag lore of our own America, as well as in the research which has made it possible to present here many flags pregnant with historic associations, the NATIONAL

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GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY has been fortunate in having the enthusiatic coöperation and active professional services of the foremost flag expert of the United States Government and probably the leading authority in the world on flag usages among maritime nations Lieut. Commander Byron McCandless, of the United States Navy.

Lieut. Commander McCandless was the flag officer of the American fleet at Vera Cruz in 1913, and in the performance of his duties there he found that the signal officers and enlisted men were handicapped in their work by the non-existence of a flag book. Being far removed from a printing establishment, the ingenious officer met the condition by chiseling flag plates from leaden sheets and printing in color a book of flags with a hand-press installed on the flagship. This unique publication attracted wide attention among naval officers, and the demand for copies of the work became so great that the improvised flag plates, made of soft metal,

soon wore away.

Lieut. Commander McCandless was induced by the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY to undertake, with the consent of the Secretary of the Navy, the assembling of the flags of the world for this volume. In view of the value of this flag material to the government, the SOCIETY has donated 5,000 copies of the Flag Book to the United States Navy and 5,000 copies to the Army.

In addition to the expert services of Lieut. Commander McCandless, the Editor has had the assistance of John Oliver La Gorce, the Associate Editor; of William Joseph Showalter, Ralph A. Graves, Franklin L. Fisher, and other members of the editorial staff in the months of research work necessary to secure the historically accurate data descriptive of the more than 1,200 flags in colors and in black and white. Thus, through such concerted effort, it is possible to present in this issue the most complete and authoritative work on flags ever published.

The engraving of the coats-of-arms and devices appearing on many of the ban

ners and the preparation of all the color plates in their accurate proportions, as well as the notable achievement in rich color printing, have been accomplished through the mechanical efficiency and artistic coöperation of the Beck Engraving Company of Philadelphia. In the processes of color printing it was necessary to operate the presses in daylight only, in order that the tints and shades might be kept true for each of the 23,000,000 pages (32 pages of color in each of more than 700,000 copies of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE).

The Flag Number and the Flag Book, like all the other issues since the founding of the magazine twenty-nine years ago, owe their attractive typographical appearance to Messrs. Judd & Detweiler, Inc., of Washington, D. C.

THE WORK OF PRINTING

So vast has grown the membership of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY that one finds it hard to realize how widespread is the geographic interest it has engendered or how many magazines must be printed before each member can receive his or her copy. Two striking illustrations of the SOCIETY'S numerical strength have come home to the Editor in the issuance of the Flag Number. With one of the largest color printing plants in America engaged in producing the 32 pages of flags in colors, it took 75 working days-three months-to print these alone.

The attention of the reader is directed to the little vacant spaces after flags 640 and 666 respectively (pages 350-351). These blank intervals do not seem to be more than negligible; and yet, running through the entire edition of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, they occupy more than 700,000 square inches of space, or 1,728 pages. Put side by side they would form a ribbon of paper twenty miles long.

GILBERT GROSVENOR,

Editor and Director,
National Geographic Society.

A pe

S IF in augury of that perpetual peace for which all mankind hopes as the outcome of the world war, immediately following the entrance of the United States of America into the great struggle to secure democracy for all peoples and freedom from the menace of militarism for all nations, the Stars and Stripes were received gratefully and reverently into that historic shrine of the English-speaking race-St. Paul's Cathedral, London-there to be preserved among the hallowed banners of the hosts of liberty (see page 302).

This epochal event marked the alliance, in a sacred cause, of the two great self-governing Anglo-Saxon nations just 140 years after the birth of that Star Spangled Banner in the travail of the conflict which severed the American Republic from the British Empire.

From the embattled pinnacle of high resolve and lofty idealism where the American flag has always floated, the course of its rise may be surveyed-an inspiration to the patriot, an enduring emblem of hope for the oppressed. The story of the Stars and Stripes is the story of the nation itself; the evolution of the flag is symbolic of the evolution of our free institutions; its development epitomizes the amazing expansion of our boundaries and the development of our natural resources; its glorious history is the history of the people whose sovereignty it signifies.

In the embryonic days of the republic, when the Thirteen Original States were still feeble British colonies bordering the western shores of the Atlantic, there were almost as many varieties of banners borne by the Revolutionary forces as there are today races fused into one liberty-loving American people.

The local flags and colonial devices (Nos. 361-366, 377-422) displayed in battle on land and sea during the first months

of the American Revolution proclaimed the attitude of the people of the several colonies in their grievances against the Mother Country.

When Bunker Hill and Lexington were fought, some of the staunchest patriots were still hopeful that an adjustment of the difficulties with the home government could be effected, and although on June 15, 1775, General Washington had been appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental forces raised, or to be raised, "for the defense of American liberty," the Continental Congress nearly a month later (July 8) addressed an appeal to King George in which the petitioners styled themselves "Your Majesty's faithful subjects."

DISINCLINED TO SEVER ALL TIES

Disinclined to sever all ties with England, yet bitterly resentful of the treatment accorded them and unyielding in their determination to resist further oppression, when it became necessary to adopt an ensign for their newly created navy, in the autumn of 1775, the revolting colonies chose a flag that reflected their feeling of unity with the Mother Country, but at the same time expressed their firm joint purpose to demand and obtain justice and liberty.

The events which resulted in the establishment of the Continental navy, and thereby the birth of the first flag representative of the thirteen united colonies, constitute one of the most picturesque chapters in American history. At the beginning of October the Continental Congress, sitting in Philadelphia, learned that two unarmed North Country-built brigs were sailing from England loaded with arms, powder, and other stores destined for Quebec. As the colonies were in sore need of powder and possessed neither factories for its manufacture nor ships for bringing it from abroad, Congress