DRAINAGE DISTRICT ASSESSMENTS. 63 
on the part of the assessors must determine details in each particular 
case. 
Of the methods of apportioning assessments now in use a number 
are made on an arbitrary basis dealing with indefinite and indeter- 
minate quantities; they are cumbersome and complicated; and some 
of them are not in accord with the principles of local assessments 
and are, therefore, likely to result in unjust and inequitable assess- 
ments. There is ample room for the improvement of method, and 
the necessity for such improvement is shown by the litigation which 
too often accompanies the organization of drainage districts. The 
apportionment of assessments according to the benefits received is 
the best method of taxation which has been devised. The justice of 
assessments based upon benefits has been thoroughly established. All 
that is needed to make such assessments as perfect as anything can be 
into which enters the judgment of man with its liability to error, 
is to perfect methods of apportionment. To the end that drainage 
assessments may be more firmly established upon true principles, it 
is recommended that the individual benefits which will accrue be 
evaluated by the assessors in dollars and cents, and that the costs be 
apportioned to such benefits. 
