| Mayor's Office, |  |
| City Hall, Brooklyn | |
| December 13, 1888 |
To the Honorable, the Common Council:
Gentlemen:
In this message I shall attempt a general statement of the condition of the city, and of its building operations. For the purpose of broadly considering the city's present condition and standing among similar communities, the returns of the recent Presidential election furnish valuable data. Presidential elections call out a full vote, and thus afford an indication of the relative growth of the different cities of the country. The following table is believed to correctly state the total number of votes cast in the four leading cities for President at the recent election:
Total vote cast in 1888.
| New York | 270,194 | |
| Philadelphia | 205,747 | |
| Brooklyn | 148,868 | |
| Chicago | 123,475 |
In 1880 the vote of these several cities in the Presidential election bore the following proportion to the population as shown by the census of the same year:
Number of population to each voter in 1880:
| New York | 5.87. | |
| Philadelphia | 4.92. | |
| Brooklyn | 5.29. | |
| Chicago | 6.06. |
The following table contains the population of each city in 1880, and the apparent population at present, basing the estimate upon the vote of this year, and assuming the ratio of population to the numbers of voters to remain the same as in 1880: