We need the cross-sectional area to calculate the stress. This question looks hard at first, but we can see that we can split that complicated shape into 2 very simple shapes. It is made from a circle, well two halves and the straight section is just a rectangle.
Lets work on each section, and the sum the areas.
Next lets find the total:
Using the above equation for stress, all we need now is the downwards force, created by the mass of the object under gravity.
As we can see the stress is below the stress limit, we can see that the column can withstand the load.