Howard Gary Costigan (1904–1985) 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 1930 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. The injustice of the event, which culminated in an IWW member being pulled from jail by an organized band and lynched, was instrumental in moving the young Costigan to himself become involved in radical politics.
Costigan worked in local lumber mills and retail shops even while in high school. Following graduation he attended Whitman College and Washington State Normal School at Bellingham, where he trained to be a teacher. While in college Costigan learned how to cut hair and became a member of the haircutter's union.
Upon graduation from college Costigan was employed as a teacher in Vancouver, Washington, where he also coached athletics.
Political career
In 1934 Costigan became actively involved in politics, helping to organize a state-level social democratic organization called the Commonwealth Builders, serving as Executive Secretary of the new group and editor of its official newspaper. 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. This group, which drew inspiration from the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation of Canada, continued to play a decisive role in Democratic Party politics in Washington state, working to elect political candidates and to push forward the New Deal program of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Costigan was a proficient public speaker on political and in 1935 this affinity soon gained him a place at Seattle radio station KIRO-AM (known as KPCB until 1937), where he worked as a political commentator and interviewer. Costigan would remain in this capacity for more than a decade, with his broadcasts frequently picked up for a national audience by the CBS and Mutual radio networks.