Mrs. Edward Costigan

Edward Prentiss Costigan was a militant champion of labor, the under-privileged and oppressed. His entire adult life was one of service to his fellow man in an unending battle for social and industrial justice and for official consideration of human needs. Costigan was in the forefront of progressive movements in the United States for nearly three decades. From his first active support of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson until he worked for the programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Costigan was a leader among the liberals.

Born to George Purcell and Emilie (Sigur) Costigan in King William County, Virginia, on July 1, 1874, he moved with his family to Colorado at the age of three. The family eventually settled in Denver where he attended the public schools and graduated from East Denver High School in 1892.

Costigan enrolled in Harvard University, but poor health interrupted his studies and he spent his time recuperating by traveling and by studying law in Utah. He was admitted to the bar in Salt Lake City in 1897. In 1899 he was graduated from Harvard and opened a law office in Denver the following year.

Costigan soon immersed himself in public life. Finding that Denver's political processes were tainted with corruption, he sought to destroy the political machines and replace them with procedures controlled by the electorate. Later at the state level he sought to install devices such as the recall and referendum to make the state government more responsive to popular ideas and to obtain home rule for the City of Denver. Costigan supported a wide range of reforms at the community and state level; his reformist beliefs were deeply held and remained with him throughout his life. During his early career he associated with such civic betterment organizations as the Denver Citizenship Union, the Honest Elections League, the Law Enforcement League, the Anti-Saloon League, the Progressive Republicans of Denver, the Denver Citizen's Party, the Citizen's Alliance for a commission form of municipal government, the Denver Progressive Republican Club, and so forth. He customarily served as leader or spokesman and donated his legal services. He was particularly concerned with honesty in elected or appointed office, leading movements for civil service reform, a primary election law, and recall of elected officials.

Unmistakably Colorado's leading Progressive Republican, Costigan created the Progressive Party of Colorado in 1912. He could no longer compromise on the issues and remain within the Republican Party and support the re-election of William Howard Taft. He became the Progressive¬dive Party's candidate for governor of Colorado, but like its Presidential candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, he failed to win election. However, the campaign gave Costigan the opportunity to tour the state of Colorado and promote all of the reforms with which he had long been associated. In addition to urging improvements of the political process, Costigan argued for social and economic welfare measures, for the public owner¬ship of utilities and the conservation of natural resources.

Costigan chose to run for the governorship again in 1914. By then his name had become linked to the trades union movement as a result of legal services provided to the United Mine Workers of America. That union had struck the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company coal mines in southern Colorado and had been involved in the Ludlow Incident. More¬over, the Progressive Party platform advocated labor's right to organize and bargain collectively. It also urged state regulation of coal mining and experiments in state ownership and operations of coal mines. Costigan and his fellow Progressives ran a poor third in the 1914 elections. In 1916 Costigan supported the re-election of Woodrow Wilson, another step away from the Republican Party which he had earlier cherished.

In 1917 President Wilson named Costigan to the U. S. Tariff Commission and a year later sent him to Europe for tariff and trade discussions with the Allied powers. The lawyer later demanded an inquiry into the work of the Commission charging that its activities were partisan and that it was ridden with politics. He declared that the public interest was being ignored. In 1928 Costigan resigned in protest and returned to Denver to pursue a legal ^nd political career.

His election to the U. S. Senate as a Democrat two years later took him back to Washington where he aligned himself with other progressive senators. Costigan was vitally interested in legislation for federal relief and sided with those congressmen who favored public works programs. Several relief bills carried his name.

Costigan was a supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 and soon became a leader in the Senate on behalf of the New Deal programs. He took part in the Senate committee inquiry into the activities of bankers and financiers from which the Securities and Exchange Commission was proposed. He also backed the NRA but wanted better enforcement than first provided by the Roosevelt administration. Costigan received recognition with the Jones-Costigan bill, which was designed to aid sugar beet growers through bounty payments. It was later extended into the Sugar Act under which growers received benefit payments from a processing tax.

He was an ardent advocate of anti-lynch law legislation. The controversial Costigan-Wagner anti-lynching bill was to remain a subject of dispute and filibuster for several years before going down to defeat. Public projects such as Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam) and Muscle Shoals, which was later expanded into the Tennessee Valley Authority, as well as, soil conservation and soil erosion legislation received his support.

In 1934, he supported the nomination of Miss Josephine Roche, a Colorado coal mine operator, who was a Democratic candidate for governor in Colorado. She was defeated and Costigan's prestige dwindled in the state after that. This, combined with overwork and illness, convinced Costigan to suddenly retire from active politics and not seek re-election in 1936. He and his wife Mabel Cory Costigan, whom he married in 1903, continued their affiliation with many liberal and progressive causes.

Costigan was a member of the American, Colorado and Denver Bar Associations.

He died January 17, 1939 in Denver.

From the guide to the Edward P. Costigan Papers, 1874-1939, (University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries. Archives Dept.)