(McChesney v. City of Chicago, 173 Ill. 75; Gage v. City of Chicago, 196 id. 512.) At most, all that can be said of the location of the southern boundary of said district is that it is left uncertain by the ordinance, and the rule is, where an ordinance is uncertain and open to two constructions, the court will adopt the construction which will uphold the validity of.the ordinance. Berry v. City of Chicago, 192 Ill. 154.

Third-It is objected that the improvement proposed to be constructed is not a local improvement and cannot therefore be constructed by special assessment, but must be paid for, if constructed, by general taxation. The drainage district created by the improvement ordinance is not co-extensive with the limits of the village of Wilmette, which shows conclusively that in the judgment of the village board all the property in the village will not be benefited by the construction of the improvement, and generally this court has held that water mains and sewers placed in the streets of a village or city are local improvements and can be paid for by special assessment of the property benefited. A local improvement is defined to be "a public improvement which, by reason of its being confined to a locality, enhances the value of adjacent property, as distinguished from benefits diffused by it throughout the municipality." (City of Chicago v. Blair, 149 Ill. 310.) While it may be true that a system of relief sewers like the system in question will be a benefit to all the property in the village, this is not the test. If the improvement will enhance, specially, the property adjacent to which it is made, the improvement is local within the meaning of the law, and may be paid for by special assessment upon the property benefited. We think a system of sewers in a city or village which conveys the surface water from the cellars and basements of property located therein, as the evidence shows the sewers will do which are to be located in said village under this improvement ordinance, is a local improvement, which may be paid for by special as

sessment. In Ewart v. Village of Western Springs, 180 Ill. 318, on page 323, it was said: "The test whether an improvement is local or not depends upon the question whether or not it specially benefits the property assessed." To the same effect is Fisher v. City of Chicago, 213 Ill. 268.

Fourth-It is objected that the proviso to section 94 of the Local Improvement act, which provides that cities, towns and villages of this State having a population of less than one hundred thousand by the last preceding census, may, in and by the ordinance for the assessment prescribed, provide that a sum not to exceed six per cent of the amount of the assessment shall be applied toward the payment of the cost of making and collecting said assessment, and under which provision $8400 of the present assessment is levied, is unconstitutional and void, as the classification of the cities, towns and villages of the State made in said proviso is arbitrary and is not founded upon any rational basis. The general rule is, that a classification of the cities, towns and villages of the State by population, as a basis for legislation, may be made if such classification is based upon a rational difference of situation or condition found in the municipalities placed in the different classes. (Douglas v. People, 225 Ill. 536.). In determining the constitutionality of a statute every presumption obtains in favor of the validity of the statute. While this provision has not heretofore expressly been held to be constitutional by this court, special assessments, including the cost of making and collecting the assessment levied under this proviso, have been sustained. (Gault v. Village of Glen Ellyn, 226 Ill. 520.) In Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad Co. v. Greer, 223 Ill. 104, on page 106, it was said: "When the classification on the basis of population has reasonable relation to the purposes and objects of the legislation, the act is not within the constitutional prohibition against local or special laws."

By section 6 of the Local Improvement act, in cities having a population of one hundred thousand or more a board

of local improvements is created, with a president, vicepresident, secretary and assistant secretary; while in cities, towns and villages having a population of less than one hundred thousand, certain designated city, town or village officers are, by virtue of their respective offices, members of the board of local improvements in such cities, towns and villages. The boards in cities of one hundred thousand or more are paid a salary and their official duties require their constant attention, and their salaries and expenses, like those of other officers of such cities, are paid from the city treasury; while in cities, towns and villages having a population of less than one hundred thousand the officers composing the board of local improvements are paid their salaries or per diem as officers of said cities, towns or villages, and are not paid as members of the board of local improvements. The legislature has, it will therefore be seen, classified the cities, towns and villages of the State, in section 6, upon the basis of population of one hundred thousand, as well as in the proviso to said section 94 of the Local Improvement act. We are unable to see, if such a classification is valid in section 6, which we think it is, why it is not in the power of the legislature to pass the proviso to section 94. At least we are unable to point out any valid constitutional objection to the classification found in either of said sections of the statute, and cannot, therefore, say said classification is unreasonable and does not rest upon a substantial basis. As we are not entirely clear that the classification is unreasonable, it is our duty to hold the proviso to said section constitutional.

Fifth-It is said that the village of Wilmette has a system of sewers in its streets which amply provides all the property in said village with drainage and sewerage facilities, and that the ordinance providing for said improvement is therefore unreasonable, oppressive and void. The judge who tried the case below visited the property assessed, and the evidence upon the question of the ability of the present

system of sewers in said village to accommodate the property in said village was exceedingly conflicting. The witnesses for appellants testified that the property in said village was amply provided with facilities for the removal of the sewage of the village therefrom, while the witnesses for the appellee testified such was not the fact, but that the streets, the cellars and the basements of the houses and business blocks in said village, in times of heavy rains and freshets, were flooded to a depth of several inches and in places to a depth of several feet; that during such times the water and sewage ran from, instead of into, the catch-basins located upon the streets of said village, and that the present system of sewers in said village was wholly inadequate, and that it was necessary, in order to protect the property and health of the people residing in said village, that the new system provided for by the improvement ordinance in this case should be constructed. In view of this evidence we cannot disturb the finding of the court below upon the question of the necessity and reasonableness of this improvement. Clark v. City of Chicago, 214 Ill. 318.

It is also said the proposed sewers are to be constructed in paved streets instead of the alleys of said village, and that they are to be laid along an unnecessarily circuitous route, which makes the ordinance unreasonable and void. In Walker v. City of Chicago, 202 Ill. 531, on page 538, this court said: "The city council is clothed with the power to determine whether or not a local improvement is required, also to decide upon its location, nature and character, and when it shall be made and the manner in which it shall be constructed, and the courts have no power to interfere to prevent the construction of a local improvement upon the ground that it is not necessary and that its construction is an unreasonable burden upon the property sought to be assessed, unless the discretion vested in the city council has been abused to such an extent as to render the ordinance providing for the improvement so unreasonable that it may

be declared void." And in Field v. Village of Western Springs, 181 Ill. 186, on page 191, it was said: "The question of the necessity of a local improvement is by the law committed to the city council, and courts have no right to interfere to prevent such improvement except in cases where it clearly appears that such discretion has been abused. The ground on which courts interfere is that the ordinance is so unreasonable as to render it void."

Sixth-It is objected that the territory of which Wilmette forms a part was by act of the legislature which went into effect July 1, 1903, (Hurd's Stat. 1905, p. 368,) connected with the Sanitary District of Chicago, and that the village of Wilmette is, by reason of that fact, without jurisdiction to construct sewers within its corporate limits. Nothing has been done in the village of Wilmette by the Sanitary District of Chicago except to locate the route of its main channel. No right of way has been acquired and no work done, and under the decisions of this court in Rich v. City of Chicago, 152 Ill. 18, and Gage v. City of Chicago, 225 id. 218, the contention of appellants that the village of Wilmette has lost jurisdiction over territory located within its corporate limits to construct sewers therein is without force.

Seventh-It is objected that the proposed system of sewers, if completed, will contaminate the water supply of the village of Wilmette and that of the city of Evanston, which city is located upon Lake Michigan immediately south of the village of Wilmette, and that thereby a nuisance will be created which would be subject to abatement by injunction. There is no pretense that the amount of sewage which will flow into Lake Michigan from the village of Wilmette will be increased by the proposed improvement. The village of Wilmette, like all the north shore towns, has heretofore poured its sewage into Lake Michigan, and will be forced to continue so to do until relieved by the extension and completion of the improvement now being made by the