Evening star., 1952-11-16
By Jessie Font Evans

A youthful looking civic leader,
who baby sits for her married
children with the same ease and
efficiency with which she func-
tions as the chairman of impor-
tant committees, is the new preSl-
dent of the Goth Century Club.
She is Mrs. James Austin Stone.
wife of one of this city's leading
patent attorneys, who in his own
right generously gives much valua-
BILE time to the Craftsmanship of
the board of trustees of the
Friends School.
Mrs. Stone has the strong con-
viction that womenS clubs are
important assets in the community
life of the Nation as valuable me-
diums whereby constructive ideas
may be pooled for local, national
and even international better
ment. Especially does she con-
slider this is true in times Of stress
such as ours.
1T is an excellent idea, in fact
an essentially necessary one, for
every club to have a cause in
which it is vitally interested and
about which it is really doing
something" she told me.
"One of the crying needs for
women's clubs to tackle, is the
juvenile delinquency problem"
this gracious, soft-spoken mother
and grandmother emphasized. 1T
constitutes a canker spot in this
community and throughout the
Nation. with very few people COM
paratively, actually doing enough
about it. It is a job We women
ought to put at the very top on
our list of muStS in our thinking
and our responsibilities, for aside
from its destruction Of those who
might otherwise become valued
citizens, it can strike like lightning
overnight on our own doorsteps
and those of our neighborS."
How would she go about it?
First, by studying the best re-
suits being accomplished by child
guidance programs and corrective
agencies that are already func-
tioning. Then, by united and CO.
operative effort to try to see what
can be done to prevent children
from straying into juvenile delin-
r.
those who have, wherever this
is possible" Margaret Stone hopes
the Goth Century Club may make
some small contribution to this
effort during her term as its presi-
dent. The Goth Century Club"
she points out. lis the organiza-
ton which. under Mrs. Gilbert
GroSvenor'S leadership, was SO
largely responsible for this city's
pure milk program. She has
great satisfaction in the begin
ming which is being made through
the civics and education section
of the Goth Century Club and its
new chairman, Miss Sibyl Baker,
who has had wide and valuable
professional experience in COM
munity service.
Mrs. Stones own background
makes her views practical as we'll
as constructive. The daughter of
the late Rev. Harry S. Free.
a beloved and effective Methodist
clergyman in the Pittsburgh area
for many years. she is the grand
daughter on her mothers side of
another Methodist minister, the
Rev. Sam NeSbit. head of the
now defunct Richmond Female
Seminary at Richmond, Ohio, and
for many years editor of the
Pittsburgh Christian Advocate. At
Bryn Mawr, of which she is a
graduate, she majored in econom-
les and psychology. After two
years in the department of psy-
Chology at Carnegie Tech she
came to this city during World
War I as head of their Office staff
with a group of distinguished
psychologists. Our Government
had called her to set up the in
telliecnce tests, which were later
applied to United States Service
personnel combined with trade
and professional tests and per-
sonal interviews to eliminate use
less and unnecessary training Of
draftecs in other fields. 1t was
her privilege to be associated in
this work with such eminent
specialists as Walter Dill Smith,
afterWard president of North
western University Walter "
Bingham. head of its department
of psychology; Robert c. Clothier,
who subsequently became presi-
dent of Rutgers, and James r.
Angell, later president of Yale.
She and her husband are the