The Commission on Stellar Spectra records great progress in its field of investigation. We have reached the stage where a concerted attack can be made on two problems of fundamental importance which consciously or unconsciously have been the principal aim of stellar spectroscopists. The first is the problem of the abundances of the chemical elements in their relation to the question of nuclear transformations and the origin of the elements. The other is the problem of the origin of the stars and of their subsequent evolution.