Commentary: Should we set up New Deal-style work camps for the needy?

"They are sending out emergency calls for shoes, underwear, sleeping garments, household equipment, mattresses, springs and bedding," a Los Angeles Times story reported from Southern California. Do-gooders were doing what they could to help the destitute. "They have no sanitation," a volunteer said. "No running water. Before the storms this week, we had set into motion a campaign in their behalf."

The above reads like an article about the homeless from this month's California section. But the dispatch actually dates from 1938,