CHAPTER XXI 

 THE AYLESTONE ALLOTMENTS 



ONE of the gravest problems attendant upon urban 

 and industrial life, and one that has been felt in an 

 especially acute form in the town of Leicester, is being 

 met there by a little body of working men in a way 

 that, modest and unpretending though it be (sugges- 

 tive, indeed, of the very humble beginnings of the 

 * Rochdale pioneers '), may well be commended to the 

 attention of the world at large. 



Stated in its briefest form, the problem in question 

 is : ' How can artisans in industrial centres best supple- 

 ment their earnings in times of trade depression, and 

 at the same time fit themselves for some other occupa- 

 tion in life which they can take up when, for one 

 reason or another, employment in factory or workshop 

 fails them altogether ?' 



Leicester has certainly had good cause to ponder 

 over this problem, for she has known long periods of 

 slackness of trade, when the hours of labour have been 

 cut down to five a day, or when there has been a 

 cessation of work for weeks together. There are 

 thousands of men in the boot and shoe and the hosiery 

 trades of Leicester whose average earnings do not 

 exceed i a week, and there are many who of late years 

 have not been earning more than from 45. to 8s. a 



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