But the means? On this point Sismondi shows extraordinary timidity. Appeal to the legislator is not followed up by a plan of campaign, and in moments of scepticism and despair he even doubts whether reform is ever possible. He declares himself an opponent of communism. He rejects the Utopias of Owen, of Thompson, and of Fourier, although he recognises that their aim was his also. He failed to perceive that his “breaking up” process was quite as illusory as the communistic Utopias which he shunned. He rejected Owen’s system because he saw the folly of attempting to substitute the interest of a corporation for that of the individual. But he never realised that it had nothing to do with a corporation, and it is possible that were he alive at the present time he would be an ardent champion of co-operation. But until the union of property and labour is realised Sismondi is content with a demand for a simpler reform, which might alleviate the more pressing sufferings of the working classes. First of all he appeals for the restoration, or rather the granting, of the right of combination.[426] Then follows a limitation of child labour, the abolition of Sunday toil, and a shortening of the hours of labour.[427] He also demanded the establishment of what he called a “professional guarantee,” whereby the employer, whether agriculturist or capitalist, would be obliged to maintain the workman at his own expense during a period of illness or of lock-out or old age. This principle once admitted, the employers would no longer have any interest in reducing the wages of the workman indefinitely, or in introducing machinery or in multiplying production unduly. Having become responsible for the fate of the workers, they would then take some account of the effect which invention might have on their well-being, whereas to-day they simply regard them from the point of view of their own profits.[428] One might be tempted to regard this as an anticipation of the great ideal which has to a certain extent been realised by the social insurance Acts passed during the last thirty years. But this is only partly so. Sismondi placed the charge of maintenance upon the master and not upon society, and his criticism of methods of relief, especially of the English Poor Law, was that they tended to decrease wages and to encourage the indifference of masters by teaching the workers to seek refuge at the hands of the State rather than at the hands of the masters.