Overview

At eighty-three Helen has had enough of world conflict and wars. In this essay she preaches about what she perceives as an attainable path to world peace. Born during the Civil War she has seen the devastation and misery caused by the world's great powers struggling for supremacy and domination of vast stretches of humanity. She has lived through two world wars and numerous smaller conflicts, but now, at the end of World War II, she sees a threat to humanity itself, atomic power. Helen calls for the establishment of two world confederations of peace, one composed of the women of the world and the other of everyone else. She produces testimonials from various influential people to support her cause. Finally, she plugs for her long dead husband, Confederate General James Longstreet, in her continuing effort to rehabilitate his tarnished reputation.