Among the elements of the press most active in the "dry-wet" prohibition debate in the 1920s and early 1930s, was "Literary Digest," a weekly current affairs review. In addition to its regular impartial coverage of the week's actions relevant to prohibition, the "Digest" contributed three national straw polls on the issue. A review of these polls, which were conducted in 1922, 1930, and 1932, reveals that they were influential in structuring people's perceptions about the prohibition issue. Combined with the heavy and cumulatively negative press coverage that the subject received and with defects in governmental policy concerning it, the polls contributed to the creation of a climate of opinion in which repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment became a practical possibility. (FL)