376 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS which have gone on multiplying until they are now an im- portant adjunct of our public school system. Through the influence of clubs libraries were multiplied; library commis- sions were established in many states; juvenile courts were instituted, with women probation officers; dty art commis- sions were formed; pure milk stations and rest-rooms were opened ; women were enlisted in the anti-tuberculosis and anti- child labor crusades ; and factory conditions were studied. But they did not altogether abandon their literary pursuits. They were still devoted to Shakespeare and Browning, but these subjects had to divide the time with civics, the needs of working women, etc, Jane Addams, in her address on Wo- men^ s Clubs and Public Policies j has shown how really essen- tial it was that the club women should go on that '^gigan- tic quest for culture,** because only thus could they have been prepared intelligently to handle the practical problems that were inevitably to present themselves a little later. As with the individual club, so it was with the General Fed- eration of Women's Clubs. The law of evolution was never more beautifully illustrated than in the gradual development of this great national body. Beginning in 1889 with a hand- ful of literary clubs, banded together for mutual helpfulness, the Federation has steadily grown until it now numbers in its membership more than a million women whose purposes are as inclusive as the interests of human society. Josiah Strong declares, '* Except in the United States Congress I know of no body of men or women representing so much of intellect and heart, so much of culture and influence, and so many of the highest hopes and noblest possibilities of the American people, as the General Federation of Women's Clubs." To be the successful head of an organization so potential, with flourishing branches in every state in the Union and tendrils reaching into almost every community, presupposes qualities of head and heart possessed only by the exceptional woman. And such a woman is Anna J. H. Pennybacker. The career of Mrs. Pennybacker demonstrates that she has reached her present proud position because she has had a purpose in life. She has believed with Eobert Louis Steven-
