Howard Costigan

Howard Gary Costigan (January 27, 1904 – October 7, 1985) was an American radio commentator, political functionary, and politician. Costigan is best remembered as the Executive Secretary of the Washington Commonwealth Federation during the second half of the 1930s while he was simultaneously a secret member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA); he later provided testimony in support of legislative committees investigating communist activities.

Costigan left the Communist Party in 1940, shortly after the conclusion of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. In 1948, Costigan provided testimony as a friendly witness to the Canwell Committee of the Washington State Legislature, charged with investigating Communist influence in the state. In May 1954, Costigan played a similar role on behalf of the House Committee on Un-American Activities during its investigation of radicalism in the Pacific Northwest.

Biography

Early years

Howard Gary Costigan was born January 27, 1904, in Seattle, Washington. He attended primary school in Seattle and Everett before graduating from Centralia High School in Centralia, Washington. While at Centralia High School Costigan was a member of the school debate team for three years and was elected president of the student body.

On November 11, 1919, the 15-year-old Costigan was a witness to the so-called Centralia Massacre, an outburst of mob violence in which members of the American Legion participating in an Armistice Day parade attempted to storm the local headquarters of the radical Industrial Workers of the World and were met with armed resistance. According to Costigan's later sworn testimony to Congress

"The Commonwealth Builders was an organization originally of protesting and unemployed citizens who were displeased at the fact that they were expected to go up in front of soup kitchens when they preferred working with tools to build themselves and adequate standard of living...

"They decided that as long as private industry couldn't provide them with the chance to do it that it was the duty of the state, and they nominated candidates who supported what we call the Economic Security Act of 1935; and I might add that that act almost passed the House of Representatives. It got, I believe, 48 votes and there were 99 members in the House. And we elected on the Commonwealth Builders ticket 41 members of the House of Representatives in 1934, and I have forgotten the number in the State Senate..., about a third if my memory serves me right..."

The Commonwealth Builders provided the core for a new expanded organization established in 1935, the Washington Commonwealth Federation, of which Costigan was named the Executive Secretary. According to his own testimony, Costigan signed his application for party membership with the pseudonym "Jack Robinson" and was accepted as a secret member of the organization, paid no dues, and did not attend meetings of local party units. Hugh DeLacy. He remained in this politically appointed position until resigning in 1946.

Costigan testified that the Washington Commonwealth Federation had been established in 1935 by liberal and labor groups over the opposition of the Communist Party as a means for advancing Roosevelt's New Deal agenda. It was only in 1936, according to Costigan's testimony, that the CPUSA warmed up to the idea of using its trade union and liberal connections for the "penetration" of the Washington Commonwealth Federation, including its executive board. Costigan insisted that he had paid no party dues and carried no party card and "frankly had no feeling of being in the Party, except to consult with these people" throughout the 1937 to 1939 interval. old age pension activists William J. Pennock and N.P. Atkinson, union leader Jess Fletcher, longshoremen's union official Harry Bridges,

Costigan separated from his wife in April 1948 and moved to Southern California, where he worked on behalf of the United Nations Appeal for Children. his former secretaries Sylvia Keen and Irene Borowski, University of Washington professors E. Harold Eby and Mel Jacobs, union officials Karley A. Larsen and Harry Jackson, in addition to those already named in the 1948 Canwell proceedings.

Costigan also noted to HUAC that he had worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other departments of the U.S. Government, including the Immigration department, since the conclusion of World War II.

Costigan argued to the committee that it was essential for conservatives to allow for "freedom for the expression of progressive and liberal ideas, in an effort to ameliorate conditions that give the Communists adequate soil in which to fortify."

Later years

After 1955 Costigan worked as an independent consultant and writer, counting among his clients the House Committee on Un-American Activities, for whom he helped investigate Communist influence in the motion picture industry.

Costigan moved to Fresno, California in 1970 and was active in the political campaigns of anti-communist Washington Senator Henry M. Jackson.

In the late 1970s Costigan began to research and write his memoirs, aided by his second wife, but the book was never finished.

Death and legacy

Howard Costigan died on October 7, 1985. He was 81 years old at the time of his death.

Costigan's papers are held in the Special Collections department of Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Footnotes