The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-24
WINS THE DEFOREST PRIZE
AWARDED TO CARROLL r. SHEET
 OF GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.
His Essay on "CoIonial Expansion"- Five Other Competitors for the Covet- ed MedaI-Richard Hooker or rms City One of the Speakers.

The DeForest prize at Yale wa
 awarded yesterday afternoon to Cafroi
 F,1ller Sweet of Grand Rapids, Mich
 The subject of his essay was "Colonla
 Expansion.
 The speaking opened in Battell chape
 at o'clock before an audience that wal
 unusually large as compared with tha
 of previous years. President Dwigh
 occupied the pulpit and announced th' different competitions. The first speaker
 was Richard Hooker of New Haven
 the subject of whose essay was ''Ih' Italian Struggle for Liberty Follow ing him essays were read by the differ ent speakers as follows:
 The Puritan Inheritance, Arthur Sears Hamlin, Canandiagua, N. Y.
 Faust. George Dana Graves, Manches- ter, N. H.
 The Cavaliers of Charles the First Henry Robinson Shipman, Hartford Conn.
 Colonial Expansion, Horace Jewell Fenton, Willimantic, Conn.
 Colonial Expansion - Carroll Fuller Sweet, Grand Rapids, Mich.
 All the essays were excellent and suf- fered in no way by their delivery. "Co- 1onial Expansion" as taken up by Hor- ace Jewell Fenton of Willimantic rival ed the essay of MT. Sweet in the strong negative arguments brought out, "Faust," the subject of the essay of George Dana Graves, was also splen- didly written one and at it's conclusion was applauded unstintedly.
 At the close of the addresses the men- bers of the faculty present headed by President Dwight, as usual Wended their way to the treasury building, from whence after more than thirty minutes deliberation came the an- nouncement of the winner to the wait ing students without. The announce ment was greeted with shouts and yells of approval, and immediately rush was made for the'room of the lucky one to congratulate him.
 The DeForest prize, a gold medal of the value of $100, is awarded annually to that scholar of the senior class who shall write and pronounce an English oration in the best manner. It was founded in 1923 by David c. DeForest of this city.
 The following is the prize essay as read by MT. Sweet:
 COLONIAL EXPANSION.
 Colonial expansion Is not a question of ethics alone. It is rather a question of national policy in the broadest sense of the term. The interests of the col onies to be annexed cannot, it is true, be wholly ignored, because their general well-being ultimately affects the parent country. Yet in the final analysis the standpoint must always be that of the nation which contemplates extending its sovereignty over foreign territory. The test by which the policy must either stand or fall lies in the answer to the question, "Is colonial expansion best for the nation which proposes to adopt it?'
 Nations, like individuals, are sur rounded by a great diversity of condi- tions and circumstances. One nation has a scarcity of territory, and an over crowded populations; another has vast amount of territory and scant popula- tion. One has a government so central ized as to be capable of the prompt and vigorous measures necessary to control semi-civilized races; another has form of government in which power is so dis tributed as to render it incapable of prompt action at a distance. In the same nation, moreover, change in the form of government in the density of it's population, or other circumstances, of colonial sion advisable at one time and not at another A nation cannot, therefore, formulate it's policy upon precedents es- tablished by other nations The ques- ton must be decided in the light of it's own needs and possibilities alone.
 It is an indisputable fact that prior to the recent war with Spain the United States has not been a colonizing power and that the principle of aggrandize- ment is contrary to the ideas and tradi- tions upon which the government was founded. No one will deny that exten- sions have been made to our territory which were sanctioned by our fore yet these were always from con- tiguous territory which was destined to be occupied by our own people, and to F become a part of a homogeneous, self governing nation. This general princi- ole cannot be easily disregarded. The fact that it was constitutional to an- nex Florida, Louisiana and Texas, ter .itory contiguous inha abited by like peo- ,Ie capable of becoming American citi- ,ens. and necessary for self-defenSe, 'orms no basis for the constitutionality if the annexation of territories as far rom contiguous as possible, whose peo- ole are utterly unfit to become American citizens, and who in war can be of lit le aid if, indeed, they do not prove a serious detriment
 Much as there was to admire in our original constitution, the annexationist rgues. even before this time it has been ound necessary to amend it in several important particulars. In the distribu- ion of federal powers it is true, and in all the vital principles wisely adopted by the founders of our ,overnment no changes have been oade. Yet by constitutional interpreta- ions of the supreme court, and by grad al changes in public opinion, many 1eas of that period have been revised r. abandoned, and this government lands at the end of the present cen urv bv no means the same as it was at he beginning. It is, therefore, possible hat the time has now come when the Tnited States should cast aside the waddling clothes of infancy 'throw own the shield of isolation" disregard
 l.