I haven't read much of Twain on either topic, but I like this quote from Letter II of his Letters From the Earth, which I think neatly sums up the dehumanizing impact that the concept of labor as a fungible commodity has:
"All people, sane or insane, like to have variety in their life. Monotony quickly wearies them.
"Every man, according to the mental equipment that has fallen to his share, exercises his intellect constantly, ceaselessly, and this exercise makes up a vast and valued and essential part of his life. The lowest intellect, like the highest, possesses a skill of some kind and takes a keen pleasure in testing it, proving it, perfecting it. The urchin who is his comrade's superior in games is as diligent and as enthusiastic in his practice as are the sculptor, the painter, the pianist, the mathematician and the rest. Not one of them could be happy if his talent were put under an interdict."
BTW, I saw Ken Burns' recent PBS bio of Twain and was impressed by what a self-contradictory character Twain had, being both an acerbic commentator on the excesses of the Gilded Age (having coined the name himself) and a hopeless parvenu, given to spendthrift behavior and reckless speculation. On the plus side, he paid full tuition (as I recall) for the first black to graduate from Harvard Law School, a man (whose name escapes me) who later serve as a mentor to Thurgood Marshall; Twain was explicitly in favor of reparations to blacks for slavery. Also, Twain was such an outspoken opponent of imperialism that Teddy Roosevelt went out of his way to avoid shaking hands with him at some major conference. Nevertheless, however much he abhorred slavery and imperialism, I don't think Twain ever recognized capitalism as a systemic evil.
Carl
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