legislative powers in a certain manner in the future; and a contract to employ none but union labor, or to buy only such articles as have a union label.

A contract in violation of a statute or constitution is also illegal and void. And so a municipal contract obtained by means of a combination of contractors to prevent competition is illegal and void, not only as being contrary to statute, but also against public policy; and a municipal contract granting exclusive rights and franchises made by a city otherwise than in the exercise of its police powers, is likewise illegal and void.

66. Annulling contracts.-A municipality has no power to annul its contracts arbitrarily, but may renounce, terminate, or rescind them only on the same terms and under the same conditions as other contracting parties. Municipal contracts are held to be made in the exercise of municipal rather than governmental powers. The contracting parties are equal before the law, both as regards the making and performance of the contract, and each has. the same right and remedy as the other. The city, therefore, possesses no power of annulling its contracts in virtue of its public character. The analogy of the law of private corporations is generally recognized as controlling in such matters.

A municipal contract cannot be impaired by state legislation. Legislative control over municipal powers, and even municipal existence, as we have seen, is unlimited. It can create, direct, control, modify, and destroy the municipality; but it can pass no law impairing the obligations of a municipal contract.

However great the control of the legislature over the corporation while it is in existence, this must be exercised in subordination to the principles which secure the inviolability of contracts.

67. Money contracts.-The inherent or implied power of a municipal corporation to borrow money and execute negotiable paper or municipal bonds therefor is an unsettled point of municipal law in America, a majority of the cases seeming to recognize the existence of that municipal power, while the weight of the reasoning denies it except where expressly conferred.

The following views of Judge Dillon are sound doctrine:25

(1) Municipal expenses are based upon municipal revenues, and the power to borrow money as a means of making future improvements or meeting current expenses cannot be implied from the mere authority to make such improvements, or from the usual grants of municipal power.

(2) The nature of the usual functions of a municipality is so widely different from that of a private corporation as not to warrant the use of analogy to determine the inherent powers of the municipality as to borrowing money and issuing commercial paper.

(3) The power to issue negotiable paper, unimpeachable in the hands of the holder, is not an inherent or implied power of a municipal corporation.

(4) Power to issue negotiable paper may be properly inferred from the express power to borrow money granted to a municipality.

25 1 Dill. Mun. Corp., § 125.

(5) Municipal paper, negotiable in form, if issued by a public corporation required to audit all claims and issue to the creditor warrants or orders therefor, is subject to all legal and equitable defenses in the hands of a transferee, as of the original holder.

68. Municipal improvements.-Municipal improvements include all those additions to or changes in the municipal property, made by the use of money and labor or skill, for the purpose and with the effect of enhancing taxable values or ameliorating conditions of life in the municipality. They are necessarily public, but may be either local, as conferring special benefits upon a certain street, block, or section; or general, as bettering the entire municipality. The latter are generally paid for out of the municipal treasury, the former by local taxation.

Streets must be laid out, graded, curbed, guttered, paved, and lighted; sidewalks must be laid; municipal buildings must be erected; water must be furnished, sewers constructed, and in these times electric plants are coming into municipal use to furnish not only light but power for municipal purposes. Parks, also, are urban necessities, and boulevards contribute greatly not only to the beauty but the health of a city. Nor are public schoolhouses, halls, hospitals, and auditoriums to be omitted. The construction and care of all these things properly appertain to a modern municipality, and they are embraced within the comprehensive term "improvements," whether they are general in their nature, for the common use of all the citizens, or, by reason of being local, afford special benefits and advantages

to citizens owning property or living in a particular locality.

69. Power to make or aid improvements.-The power to make general improvements is inherent in every municipality; but the power to make local improvements at the expense of the locality must be conferred expressly by the charter or by statute, or plainly implied. The general amelioration of urban conditions is the paramount object of municipal incorporation. So no express authority is necessary to be given to a city to require lot-owners to lay sidewalks in front of their property; and if a lot-owner fails to make such improvement, when notified to do so, the city may do the work, and collect the cost thereof from the property-owner.26 And a city not only may, but must, take proper care of its streets and alleys; and this it may do, at an expense within the limit of its annual revenues appropriated to that purpose, without express charter authority. It may also, without express grant of power therefor, contract with a gas or electric company to provide light for the city; but if an extensive scheme of grading and paving at great expense is to be entered upon, requiring more than the annual revenues, and thereby incurring large municipal indebtedness, or if, at large expense and by municipal loan, the city wishes to construct its own gas or electric plant, it must have express legislative authority therefor.

70. Preparations for improvements. It is essential to the validity of any scheme of improvement that all the substantial requirements of the charter

20 City of Pittsburgh v. Daly, 5 Pa. Super. Ct. 528.

or statute authorizing the same shall be strictly observed and complied with. Municipal repairs or slight betterments made within the limits of ordinary revenues are not generally considered to be included in the meaning of the term "improvements." This word is commonly employed to describe such local or thorough changes in physical conditions as involve extraordinary expenditure or unusual taxation. It is usually conditioned upon the assent of those to be burdened by the proposed improvement. If it is general, the assent is required to be manifested by a popular election showing the favor of a bare majority or two-thirds or three-fourths of the entire vote cast, or of all entitled to vote in the election. If it is a local improvement, the condition precedent may be either a petition for the improvement, generally required to be signed by a majority of all freeholders to be affected thereby; or a judicial declaration by some court pro hac vice (for this purpose). These provisions are mandatory, and compliance with them is absolutely essential to the exercise of the power.

The rule of strict construction is also applied to statutes giving this power of special or extraordinary taxation. A guardian of children cannot be counted to make a majority of property-holders signing a petition; nor one of two joint tenants; nor a life tenant. The names of property-holders upon an original petition to the council, which has been laid upon the table, cannot be added to those subscribed to a subsequent petition for the same improvement, in order to make a majority.