The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-12-19

time pondered, grinned and shook his
 large head
 "Tll tell you later" he said.
 Interviewing public men in England
 and in America are two different
 things. In England, ordinarily, the
 statesman gives what information he
 thinks best and is not accustomed to,
 and does not particularly relish, be-
 ing pressed for information he doesn't
 want to give. He is not used to it. either, and seldom sees a newspaper
 man. He has much more dignity than an American servant of the people. In America it is the custom to go hard
 after public official, ask him what you like as you like, until sometimes it is almost cross-examination. This interview yesterday was decidedly of the American order. Lord Derby start ed things goins by briefly incisively and clearly outlining the recruiting plan of campaign, then he asked if
 there were any questions Of course there were.~
 Lord Derby, what can you say about conscription, are you going to have it?"
 Lord Derby smiled and slowly shook his head
 T cannot say yet" he said. Wait until we have finished
 TALKS OF OTHER THINGS
 Then he talked about something else
 for time. Presently it came out again:
 Lord Derby. will you tell us wheth- CT you. are satisfied or whether you are not satisfied with the present state of affairs regarding recruitng?' Lord Derby acted just like MT. Taft would have done, accustomed as he was to pointed inquiries from American no nrtn Iya lal xr-ifI ssxr@t, a1'f catch me that way air and quickly said;
 "rll tell you later,' and he smiled again and so did the correspondents and so did all the staff officers in the room
 Of course it was virtually impos- sible for him to commit himself. If he said that the campaign was sue cess he would stop many a man from
 enlisting on the ground that if enough
 men had been obtained his services would not be needed. If he said that it wasn't the result would be equally bad But while Lord Derby wouldn't give a direct answer the tone of the
 whole thing was optimistic and the impression was left that things were
 going pretty we'll.
 'One thing is certain he said
 "There is nothing wrong with the
 country. nothing. The spirit is there we will win. No fear about that, no fear at all. England will triumph and he added with a fervor of genuine en- thusiasm, ''what a glorious thing it
 will be if we win without having con-
 scription.'
 Lord Derby told about the organi- zation he has perfected, how the men
 of the nation are approached, how they
 have been divided into groups, begin
 ming with the young single men and ooip hU o1a to ha r.
 ried men. He pointed out that it was
 the duty of every man from 19 to 40
 to offer his services to the state
 'Up to 70 years, 364 days, in fact"
 said Lord Derby, flor we are count ing a man still 40 until he is 41. That's
 what he does himself-claims to be 4o
 until his forty first birthday. so we do, too"
 He said that up to now the recruiting
 had been hand to mouth sort of thing, men being called for as they
 were needed and distributed to various
 regiments and organizations. What
 they were doing now was to create
 huge reservoir of men, who would all
 ways be ready. When needed the fau-
 cet would be turned on and the flow
 of men would come and be distrib- uted to the greatest advantage. Lord Derby in expounding on what has al-
 ready been accomplished mentioned the
 situation in the United States. "You have a very small army over
 there and if you become engaged in
 a great war it would seem difficult to get the millions of men you would need But you would get them, just as we do here"
 ON TWO PRINCIPLES Lord Derby said there were two prin- ciples on which they were working. one was that every man eligible must of l e +l,o e-to to. nf Uy a that the state not the individualS nor the individuals employers, should say where that mans services would be or the most value. He mentioned that under the system previously in vogue
 many men had gone to the front who would have been more valuable had
 they remained at home in the intuition shops.
 The chief recruiter also indicated 1 that there had been too much talk about 1 "slackers" and "shrkers." He said that | there were men in this country who 1 did not want to fight, but they had | them in every country; France had some and so did Germany, where they called such people "scitting hares.' But 1 he clearly indicated that their number | In England is fewer than some of the Iconscriptionist newspapers tell. Lord Derby was asked if the people of the country had not realized the necessities | of the situation. He said that that was | true Particularly in the country dis tricts the people did not seem to realize how things were. Then we asked him why that was, was it the fault, for in- stance, of the censor. a genial enemy of ours Again Lord Derby smiled, shook his head once more. and only said:
 What's the censor been doing to you?"
 Evidently Lord Derby is recruiting for living these days, and has no time for anything but the work at hand. Shortly after, the meeting broke up, and Lord Derby went out as he came in, with a convincing air that before going to dinner he had two or three