New Mexico's serious DWI problem, in spite of strenuous public efforts to deal with it, seems unwilling to go away. Each year's tally of shattered and lost lives owing to overindulgence in alcohol casts a dark shadow over our society.

The issue is not a new one, for Americans generally have struggled to find ways to conquer what was commonly referred to as "demon rum." In the early days of the republic, rum was by far the preferred strong drink.

The earliest reference I can find to emergence of a prohibition movement dates from the 1850s when Maine businessman and Quaker Neal Dow launched a shrill campaign to ban sale and consumption of alcohol. By 1857, he'd convinced 13 states to adopt prohibition.

The Civil War slowed progress in that direction. But for the 1884 presidential election, the new Prohibitionist Party entered its candidate, Gov. J.P. St. John from the dry state of Kansas.

Over the next two decades, this single-issue political party made no headway in electing its candidates. Yet, support for the idea grew.

In the New Mexico Territory, as elsewhere in the West, liquor foes ran into stiffer opposition. Here, saloons had long served as recreation centers for cowboys, sheepherders, miners, railroaders and other working men as well as for rich business types.

At Albuquerque, for instance, saloons outnumbered all other businesses combined. At the turn of the century, you could walk down First Street or Railroad Avenue (today's Central Avenue) and partake of ardent spirits in the White Elephant, Bucket of Blood, Silver Dollar, St. Elmo and the Metropolitan, to mention only a few.

The White Elephant Saloon at the corner of Second Street and Railroad (later site of the Sunshine Theater) catered to an elite clientele. It boasted a solid mahogany bar, so long that 50 drinkers at once could "belly up."

Furnishings were sumptuous from the chandeliers to brass cuspidors and Belgian glassware.

For 30 years New Mexico's political and professional leaders, along with visiting dignitaries, gathered in the White Elephant to down whiskey and gin while hatching deals.

As the liquor flowed freely, however, the stirrings of the national prohibitionist movement were beginning to be felt throughout the territory. It started at some of the military forts where alcoholism was endemic.

In these, the fraternal Order of Good Templers established lodges that encouraged hard-drinking soldiers to take pledges to temper or to abstain from using liquor. Fort Union east of Las Vegas had one of the strongest such lodges.

The Good Templers were followed in the cities by the Women's Christian Temperance Movement, dedicated to taking its message throughout the country.

For years the WCTU ladies, many of them elderly, maintained a small booth under the grandstand at the Territorial Fairgrounds in Albuquerque's Old Town. Next to them stretched a briskly busy bar longer than the White Elephant's.

The brave crusaders handed out white ribbons, symbols of temperance, and gave away glasses of ice water.

In time, the idea of prohibition attracted new recruits. By 1910 when the territory held a constitutional convention preparing for the coming statehood, partisans of the national Anti-Saloon League lobbied fiercely, but unsuccessfully, for inclusion of a prohibition article.

The league's strong propaganda drive following statehood in 1912 contributed significantly to moving public sentiment in its direction. When that occurred, local politicians began to take up the cause.

Then in February 1917, Washington E. Lindsey, a staunch prohibitionist, became governor. At once he announced that no longer would alcoholic beverages be served at state dinners. And he commenced to speak out loudly in support of his views.

That same year New Mexicans voted in favor of a prohibitionist amendment to their new state constitution, ending the production and sale of alcohol. New Mexico thereby became the 27th state in the Union to go "dry."

In reporting the historic event, The Santa Fe New Mexican declared: "Old King Alcohol died at midnight Monday." Saloons and cantinas, both the grand and not so grand, closed their doors statewide, as did the breweries and wineries. The economic impact was keenly felt.

In 1918, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, outlawing alcoholic beverages nationally. But owing to a host of problems it created, prohibition won repeal in 1933.

So much for social engineering at the political level!

Historian Marc Simmons is author of numerous books on New Mexico and the Southwest. His column appears Saturdays.