Image Source: The Roper Center on Cornell.edu
When did public opinion polling on topics other than elections begin? Are there examples prior to the 1930's when Gallup and Roper began approaching public opinion polling using scientific methods more reliable than earlier straw polls (the earliest of which appear to have taken place in the 1824 US presidential election)? The Literary Digest began conducting polls in 1916 but here again these were with regards to trying to predict election results.


I am trying to frame a question on public opinion from a time before Gallup and Roper on a topic that is not related to any elections. I have thus been researching the history of public opinion polling from various sources, including Wikipedia, Time, Polling the Nations, and the other sources included in this related question as well as the sources included in the answer to that question provided by sempaiscuba.
This PBS article from NOW with Bill Moyer includes this interesting background on public opinion polling:
Beginnings: Ironically, it was the French Minister of Finance in the years just before the French Revolution who first pointed out the importance of l'opinion publique. Jacques Neckar was concerned with what we now call "investor confidence" and he advocated for the publishing of government accounts and policies.
The Declaration of Independence: The very language of the Declaration of Independence requires that public opinion be taken into account. Our government functions expressly with "the consent of the governed."
Abraham Lincoln Said: "What I want to get done is what the people desire to have done, and the question for me is how to find that out exactly." Lincoln, certainly a President with a less than unanimous approval rating, stated outright his belief in the public mandate. In his case, he used the notion of the will of the people to fight a war.
Straw Polls: Newspapers often augmented their election coverage by interviewing voters as they left the polling place. These impromptu interviews were called "straw polls," and the first one recorded in the U.S. took place in 1824. By the turn of the century they were common in both local and national newspapers and magazines.
Gallup: During the early years of the 20th century the rise of the social sciences in education and government brought sociology and statistics into the public consciousness. Market research firms were born — designed to help manufacturers make and market products of mass appeal.
Among the first of the practitioners of scientific polling, George Gallup founded the American Institute of Public Opinion in 1936. He quickly began to apply polling techniques to fields far beyond marketing. Soon after, The Roper and Crossley Poll (FORTUNE Poll) and Harris Poll were also up and running. The National Opinion Research Center was founded in 1941, the first non-commercial polling agency.
Thus there has long been an idea that gauging and understanding public opinion and perception on many topics (though prior to Gallup these topics evidently skewed towards politics in general and elections in particular) is important for various reasons.
That being said, I am having a hard time finding any references to polls or surveys of public opinion on topics other than elections prior to about 1916 (but specifically in the 1930's with Gallup and Roper). If polling on sentiment regarding elections began in 1824, is there any research that shows when polling on sentiment of other topics began, or at least perhaps some earlier examples of public opinion polling (or whatever you want to call the process of soliciting or gauging public opinion on a topic prior to scientific methods introduced in the 1930's). If the need was recognized as early as the Declaration of Independence, or even earlier - was that need met in any way for non-election topics prior to Gallup and Roper?


Did newspapers or any other entities conduct straw polls on topics other than elections prior to the 1930's? If so, can examples be found from news or other sources in such principal locations as London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Moscow, and New York? Specifically, I'm interested in the period 1914 - 1915, but earlier examples (and other locations / publications) would be welcome.


These are not specifically sought in this Question but these would be some typical examples of what I am looking for: