Opinion of the Court-WHITE, J. [25 Wash. municipal corporations may be vested with authority to assess and collect taxes, and such taxes shall be uniform in respect to persons and property within the jurisdiction of the body levying the same." Constitution, art. 7, § 9. It will be observed that equality of taxation under this section applies only to general taxation for corporate purposes. The part of the section relating to local improvements permits taxation according to local benefits. The city charter of the city of Seattle provides that: "Whenever the public interest or convenience may require, the city council is hereby authorized and empowered to order the whole or any part of the streets, lanes, alleys, squares or places of the city to be graded or regraded to the official grade, planked or replanked, paved or repaved, macadamized or remacadamized, graveled or regraveled, piled or repiled, capped or recapped, and to order sidewalks, sewers, manholes, culverts, bulkheads, retaining walls, water mains, curbing and cross walks to be constructed or repaired therein; and to order any and all work to be done which shall be necessary to complete the whole or any portion of the said streets, lanes, alleys, squares or places; and the city council may levy and collect an assessment upon all lots or parcels of land specially benefited by such improvements to defray the whole or any portion of the cost and expense thereof, which assessment shall become a first lien upon all property liable therefor, prior and superior to all other liens and encumbrances." Charter, City of Seattle, art. 8, § 11, subd. 1. This provision of the charter was adopted in March, 1900. The legislature in 1899 passed an act authorizing the issuance of bonds by cities to pay for local improvements. The first section of that act reads as follows: "Whenever any city shall have power and authority vested in it by its charter or by any law of this state to order or cause the whole or any part of the streets, lanes, alleys, squares or public places of such city to be graded, re-graded, planked, re-planked, graveled, re-graveled, June, 1901.] Opinion of the Court-WHITE, J. piled, re-piled, paved, re-paved, macadamized, re-macadamized, capped, re-capped, or to order or cause sidewalks, sewers, man-holes, culverts, curbing, gutters, water mains, or crosswalks to be constructed or to order or cause to be made any local improvement whatever, and to levy and collect assessments upon the property benefited thereby or abutting, adjoining, contiguous or approximate thereto, to defray the whole or any portion of the cost and expense of any such improvement, the proper authorities of such city may, in their discretion, provide for the payment of the cost and expense of such improvement by bonds of the district, which shall include the property liable to assessment for the payment of the cost and expense of such improvement according to the charter of such city, issued to the contractor, or by the proceeds of such bonds to be issued and sold as hereinafter provided." Laws 1899, p. 234. Section 4 of this act provides that in all cases where any city shall issue bonds as provided in the act, to pay the cost and expense of any local improvement, the said cost and expense shall be assessed against the lots and parcels of land, which under the provision of law, and the charter of such city, shall be liable therefor. This act must be regarded as an amendment to the general incorporation laws theretofore enacted by the legislature under § 10, art. 11, of the constitution. The city of Seattle has declared the laying of a water main to be a local improvement, the same as the grading of a street. legislature has recognized and declared it to be a local improvement in the same class as the grading of a street. To the legislature, by the constitution, was confided the duty, by general laws, of defining and limiting the powers of municipal corporations. By the express provision of § 10, art. 11, of the constitution, all city charters framed or adopted by authority of the constitution shall "be subject to and controlled by general laws." Every act of the legislature is presumed to be valid and consti The Opinion of the Court-WHITE, J. [25 Wash. tutional until the contrary is shown. All doubts are resolved in favor of the validity of the act. If it is fairly and reasonably open to more than one construction, that construction will be adopted which will reconcile the statute with the constitution and avoid the consequences of unconstitutionality. "Legislators, as well as judges, are bound to obey and support the constitution, and it is to be understood that they have weighed the constitutional validity of every act they pass. Hence the presumption is always in favor of the constitutionality of a statute; every reasonable doubt must be resolved in favor of the statute, not against it; and the courts will not adjudge it invalid unless its violation of the constitution is, in their judgment, clear, complete, and unmistakable." Black, Interpretation of Laws, p. 93, and cases cited. A statute can be declared unconstitutional only where specific restrictions upon the power of the legislature can be pointed out, and the case shown to come within them, and not upon any general theory that the statute is unjust or oppressive or impolitic, or that it conflicts with a spirit supposed to pervade the constitution, but not expressed in words. Sawyer v. Dooley, 21 Nev. 390 (32 Pac. 437); Wadsworth v. Union Pacific Ry. Co., 18 Colo. 600 (33 Pac. 515, 36 Am. St. Rep. 280, 23 L. R. A. 812). There is nothing in our constitution imposing specific restrictions upon the power of the legislature to incorporate cities and give to such the municipal powers we have heretofore pointed out, including the power to maintain water works, although the city may regulate and collect pay for the water used, and including the power to create local districts for the construction of water mains. It has been held in this country generally that water works for the supplying of cities and towns with water are undoubtedly for public and municipal purposes, and that June, 1901.] Opinion of the Court-WHITE, J. the legislature may confer authority upon municipalities to erect and operate such works, or to purchase works already established, and to that end they may incur expenditures, levy taxes, issue bonds and exercise the right of eminent domain. 29 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, p. 2, and cases cited. Cooley on Taxation, in speaking of water pipes in streets, says: "Of these it has been said that 'the benefits are local, as the use of the water must necessarily be mostly restricted to the benefit of the property on the lines, both for domestic purposes and the extinguishment of fires. The effect of supplying the streets with water is to enhance the value of the dwelling-houses thereon. The maintenance of the pipes and the supplying of water are necessarily a continuing expense,' and for these reasons the assessment of the cost upon adjacent property is within the general principle of local assessments." Cooley, Taxation (2d ed.), 620; Allentown v. Henry, 73 Pa. St. 404; Northern Liberties v. St. John's Church, 13 Pa. St. 104; Allen v. Drew, 44 Vt. 174; Hughes v. Momence, 163 Ill. 535 (45 N. E. 300). REDFIELD, J., in Allen v. Drew, supra, explains the principle of such assessment, and says: "It is not easy to see any distinction between an assessment for building a sewer or sidewalk, and an aqueduct. They are each, in degree, a general benefit to the public, and a special benefit to the local property, both in the uses and in the enhanced value of the property. The proprietor may, indeed, leave his house tenantless, and his vacant lots unvisited, but the assessment is not, for that reason, void. Such assessments are justified on the ground that the subject of the tax receives an equivalent." "The only essential elements of a 'local improvement' are those which the term implies, viz., that it shall benefit the property on which the cost is assessed in a manner local in its nature, and not enjoyed by property generally in the city. If it does this,-rendering the property more Opinion of the Court-WHITE, J. [25 Wash. attractive and comfortable, and hence more valuable for use,—then it is an improvement. This construction is fully warranted by the definition of the word 'improvement' given by lexicographers. It has been defined as 'that by which the value of anything is increased, its excellency enhanced, or the like;' or 'an amelioration of the condition of property affected by the expenditure of labor or money, for the purpose of rendering it useful for other purposes than those for which it was originally used, or more useful for the same purposes.' State v. Reis, 38 Minn. 371 (38 N. W. 97). The legislature has authorized the payment by cities for water mains by local assessments, the issuance of bonds, etc. (Laws 1899, p. 234.) The city of Seattle falls within the class of cities mentioned in the act. The legislature has power under the constitution to authorize local improvements, and discretion, which ordinarily courts cannot review, to decide on what is a local improvement. When this discretion is exercised, courts should not interfere unless it plainly and clearly appears that the improvement is not such as can be recognized as being local in its nature. State v. Maginnis, 26 La. An. 558; State v. Clinton, 26 La. An. 561; Cooley, Taxation, 609. The constitution, when limiting general county, city, town, school district, and other municipal indebtedness to one and one-half per centum of the taxable property, provides that any city or town, with the assent of three-fifths of the voters therein, may be allowed to become indebted to a larger amount, but not exceeding five per centum additional, for supplying such city or town with water, artificial light, and sewers, when the works for supplying such water, light, and sewers shall be owned and controlled by the municipality. Constitution, § 6, art. 8. This court has held that the indebtedness here provided for is in excess of that provided for general municipal purposes, and is for the special purpose of supplying water, light, |