Salvatore A. Cotillo

Salvatore Albert Cotillo (November 19, 1886 – July 27, 1939) was an Italian-born New York lawyer, Democratic Party politician and judge. Elected in 1912, he was the first Italian-American to serve in both houses of the New York State Legislature and the first who served as Justice of the New York State Supreme Court. Nominated to the court in the First District, he sat on the bench from 1924 until his death in 1939.

Cotillo was a strong proponent of social and pro-labor legislation. He defended ethnic Italians against the stereotyping by Americans not of Italian descent, but also urged the need for Americanization of the Italian community. As such, he stood between the mores of the Italian ethnic ghetto in East Harlem where he grew up, and the judgment and norms of American society where he made his career.

From Naples to New York

Born in Naples, Italy,Cottilo, ''Italy During the World War''
p. 28
/ref>Henderson, ''Immigrant Politician: Salvatore Cotillo'' he came to the United States in 1895 with his parents at the age of nine.Ferber, ''A New American'', p. 1 His father Francesco Cotillo, had been a caterer in Naples. The family originally came from Avellino (Montella), in the hinterland of Naples.Ferber, ''A New American'', p. 71 The family settled in East Harlem in East 113th Street among the increasing numbers of Italian immigrants. His father took up catering again and opened a popular pastry and confectionery shop.Gill, ''Harlem'', p. 204 He has been credited with introducing the Italian ice cream spumoni into the United States.Justice Cotillo's Father Dies
''The New York Times'', November 7, 1938

The oldest of four children, the young Salvatore did not speak English and went to Public School 83 and later to DeWitt Clinton High School and Manhattan College. During those formative years he worked in the family's pastry shop, where intellectuals of the neighborhood gathered in the evening to discuss social and political issues with his father. Those debates gave birth to Cotillo's early social consciousness that formed the basis of his adult devotion to social reform legislation. The young Cotillo was passionate about baseball and became a New York Giants fan. In return for free tickets he used to clean the stadium seats.Ferber, ''A New American'', p. 7

In 1911 he completed a law degree from Fordham UniversityForty-Eight Law Graduates
''The New York Times'', June 11, 1911Constantine N. Katsoris
A Tribute to the Fordham Judiciary: A Century of Service
''Fordham Law Review'', Volume 75, Issue 5, 2007 and was admitted to the New York State bar in 1912.Admissions To The Bar
''The New York Times'', May 9, 1912Justice Cotillo Dead Here at 53
''The New York Times'', July 28, 1939 At the time Cotillo was the only Italian-American lawyer in the neighbourhood and was practicing in the street in front of his father's gelato and pastry shop on East 116th Street. Most of his clients could not read or write in either Italian or English. "Neighbors and friends sought his aid in the preparation of applications for various licenses, or petitions on behalf of their relatives who wished to emigrate to the United States. Cotillo served an apprenticeship in human problems," according to his biographer.Ferber, ''A New American'', p. 19Shaffer & Shaffer, ''Lawyers as Assimilators and Preservers''.

As a young attorney Cotillo had to distance himself from the local underworld that incorporated many members of the Camorra from Naples who tried to impose their "services". When the so-called King of Little Italy, the Camorra boss Giosue Gallucci, was arrested for carrying concealed weapons, Cotillo was asked to testify as a character witness on his behalf, but refused. Cotillo felt that Gallucci looked at others as if they "were either hirelings or payers of tribute." According to Cotillo "it was a matter of concern in the neighborhood if you were looked down upon by Gallucci."Ferber, ''A New American'', p. 20 Despite the temptation of attractive fees, he refused to help men of Gallucci's disposition to secure gun permits.

Early political career

Cotillo's early law practice included a lot of uncompensated charity for the neighborhood. Cotillo was more than just a lawyer; he advised and represented his clients as they had to deal with society outside the Italian neighbourhood. "Many problems were personal; but some had a community aspect and Cotillo was exhilarated by the challenge they offered to find a solution .... An earnest group of the more frequent callers regarded him as their leader in planning for the realization of a better life for their immigrant neighbors," according to his biographer.Ferber, ''A New American'', p. 21 Cotillo's activities in the courts made him aware of the misfortunes in his community. Italian-Americans were told they must pay illicit tribute to get permits, even if only for push-carts, bootblacks and newsstands. Others seeking employment in the municipal street-cleaning department were asked to pay weeks and months of their earnings when appointed. This racket system, whose exploiters mostly came from among their own, took advantage of the fears and ignorance of the poor.Ferber, ''A New American'', p. 26-7

Apart from a genuine social compassion, Cotillo was also building political alliances that would make it possible for him to use the Italian-American voter power as his Irish-American forerunners in New York were using the power of other immigrant groups. With his father, Cotillo was among the co-founders of a political club called the Tomahawk Democratic Club that took on the Tammany Hall political machine supporting Nicholas J. Hayes, putting forward Henry H. Lazarus as his opponent. The fight was ruthless, with both sides harassing the other's speakers. Lazarus got beaten in the electoral contest, but Cotillo, supported by the Italian-American vote, made a deal with Hayes that gave Little Italy a political foothold in the city.Leadership Fights In Many Districts
''The New York Times'', September 10, 1911Nicholas Hayes Dies Suddenly
''The New York Sun'', January 3, 1928 "I want to help my people," he said explaining his switch, "and can do so only with the backing of those in power."Ferber, ''A New American'', p. 28

In 1913, at the age of 27, he became the first Italian-born assemblyman. When Cotillo arrived in the New York State Assembly in Albany that year, the powerful ethnic Irish State Senator "Big Tim" Sullivan observed: "Mark my words, it is the beginning of the Italian era in politics. Watch them."

Cottilo would be elected to office from Italian East Harlem between 1912 and 1922. Raised in the ghetto, he was chosen by the largely Italian neighborhood and continued to depend upon their political support throughout his political career. He was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 28th District) in 1913, 1915 and 1916. He drew support from the Citizens Union and was identified for two notable pieces of legislation; pensions for widows and the Workmen's Compensations Law. He advocated for women's suffrage, gun control, the end of the death penalty and school lunch programs.

New York senator

He was a member of the New York State Senate from 1917 to 1923. He served the 20th District in the 140th and 141st New York State Legislature and represented the 18th District in the 142nd, 143rd, 144th, 145th and 146th New York State Legislatures. In March 1918, Cotillo opposed the proposed prohibition of alcohol in the state. Although he believed in temperance, he doubted if that would be achieved by prohibition; he advocated education and not infringing on civil liberties.Will Oppose Amendment
''The New York Times'', March 18, 1918

In May 1918, he was sent to Italy by President Woodrow Wilson to make a study of the economic conditions of that country during World War I in order to provide information for economic relief programs and encourage the Italians to continue the war effort after the disastrous defeat at Caporetto.Government Picks Cotillo; State Senator to Go to Italy to Study Economic Conditions
''The New York Times'', May 18, 1918Merriam, Charles (1919)
''American Publicity in Italy''
''The American Political Science Review'', Vol. XIII No. 4, November 1919, pp. 541–55 As a representative of the Committee on Public Information, he spent most of the year in Italy and won the praise of President Wilson. He also received the decoration of Grand Officer of the Italian Crown from King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.

From mid-June to the end of September 1918 Cotillo traveled around Italy, meeting officials and politicians, giving interviews to the press and addressing large crowds. His efforts in Italy were reported by the press and Italian language newspapers at home in the U.S.. When he returned to New York, Cotillo had risen from a largely unknown local politician to achieve public stature and become a leader of the Italian community. Based on this experience he wrote the book "Italy During the World War", published in 1922.Salvatore A. Cottilo (1922),
Italy During the World War
', Boston: The Christopher publishing house

Social reforms

Back from Italy and in the New York State Senate, he fought hard for the regulation of informal immigrant banks and banking agents that handled money transfers abroad, an issue of significant importance to his Italian constituency who were often swindled from their remittances to their families in Italy.Ferber, ''A New American'', pp. 122–128 Cotillo demanded legislation to supervise immigrant banks and to safeguard customers' deposits. His 1921 banking reform bill, which placed express companies and steamship agencies that transferred money abroad under the supervision of the New York State Banking Department, annoyed powerful interests of such companies as Wells Fargo and the Cunard Lines.Jared N. Day
Credit, capital and community: informal banking in turn-of-the-century immigrant communities in the United States, 1880–1924
''Financial History Review'', 2002, vol. 9, issue 1, pages 65–78 He received death threats and offers of bribes to drop the legislation he had introduced in the Senate.Cotillo Tells Of Bribe And Threats
''The New York Times'', March 31, 1921 During the hearings on Cotillo's bill in March 1921, a devastating crash of the Tisbo Brothers immigrant bank in lower Manhattan left 2,000 angry depositors with losses of more than three million dollars. As a result, four bills that regulated the sector were signed into law on May 1, 1921.

Cotillo was member of the Joint Legislative Committee on Housing, also known as the Lockwood Committee because it was headed by Charles C. Lockwood. The committee investigated renting and building conditions in the City of New York and ended a spate of rent-raising as a result of the housing shortage after World War I.43 Companies Agree To Drop Monopoly Of Fire Insurance
''The New York Times'', June 8, 1921 The group found that the housing conditions at the time constituted a serious menace to public health in New York since some 400,000 persons were directly affected by the scarcity of affordable dwellings and the poor quality of the existing ones.Finds City Short 80,000 Homes For 400,000 Residents
The New York Times, January 31, 1922New York State (1922)
Intermediate report of the Joint Legislative Committee on Housing
Legislative document (1922) no. 60, State of New York, p.7 Later he was the chairman of New York state commission to investigate child welfare, and a member of the Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate Exploitation of Immigrants (1923–24).New York (State)
Report of the Joint Legislative Committee on the Exploitation of Immigrants
Albany : J.B. Lyon, printers, 1924

Cotillo supported Leonard Covello, one of the great educators of New York City and among first teachers of Italian background in the city high schools, in his fight to admit Italian to the high school curriculum to enhance the self-image of Italian boys, which was granted by the Board of Education in 1922.Glazer & Moynihan, ''Beyond the melting pot''
p. 200
/ref> As the foremost force on the New York State Commission to Examine Laws Relating to Child Welfare, concerned with issues of custody, orphanage, child support, and state wardship and institutions, Cotillo pushed a comprehensive reform through the legislature with the support of the social-welfare advocate Sophie Irene Loeb and the Hearst newspapers. His biographer, Nat Ferber, a former Hearst reporter, considered the reform to be "the outstanding achievement of Cotillo's career".

In 1923, on behalf of the National Women's Party, he introduced into the New York State Senate twenty-five radical equal rights bills for women to remove from the statutes of New York any inequalities now existing in the legal rights and obligations of men and women.Women's New Equal Rights Bills Confer Full Privileges Of Men
''The New York Times'', February 4, 1923 One of the radical bills provided that a wife may demand wages from her husband for the services she performs in the home. "The law as to the ownership by the husband of the services or labor of his wife is totally abrogated," the bill said.

Relationship with Italian Fascism

Cotillo was a Grand Master of the Order Sons of Italy in America (OSIA) and after World War I actively propagated the nationalist cause of Italian control over Fiume, despite President Wilson's denial of the Italian claims to the Adriatic port.7,000 Celebrate Fiume Day Here
''The New York Times'', September 13, 1920 In the 1920s Cotillo tried to ease the rising tension between Italian-American Fascists and anti-Fascists by taking a stance between the two. In 1923, he went to Rome to meet Benito Mussolini. He was impressed and described Mussolini as a "commanding element of the highest order".Newark, ''The Mafia at War''
pp. 55–56
/ref> He vowed to correct the image of Mussolini and Fascism, but also cautioned his Italian-American countrymen saying that the American way was to be preferred above Fascism.

Pro-Fascists opposed the assimilation policies of Cotillo, who had become Grand Venerable of the New York State branch of OSIA in 1921 and had started an ambitious English language program as a means for upward mobility of the Italian-American community.Sees Fascist Plot For Power Here; Justice Cotillo Says Sons of Italy Leader Wants Mussolini's Orders to Rule
The New York Times, July 20, 1925 According to Cotillo, Fascism as a movement was "out of place in the United States" although it could serve its purpose in Italy. He said that American citizens of Italian origin that were truly engaged in Americanization should reject Fascism as incompatible and un-American.Nazzaro, ''Fascist and Anti-Fascist Propaganda in America''
pp. 128–29
/ref> Eventually, he joined Fiorello La Guardia and Luigi Antonini, of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, in founding an anti-Fascist New York State chapter of OSIA, the Sons of Italy Grand Lodge. Nevertheless, Cotillo was a staunch supporter of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935.Stefano Luconi
The Venom of Racial Intolerance: Italian Americans and Jews in the United States in the Aftermath of Fascist Racial Laws
''Revue française d'études américaines'' 2006/1 (no 107), pp. 107–119

In October 1938, Cotillo lobbied Mussolini "for more lenient consideration of the Jewish problem in Italy." In a letter to ''Il Duce'' he tried persuade the Italian dictator that Fascist Italy's recent anti-Semitic legislation was unwise, and asked to "postpone execution of such drastic action for a reasonable time until an opportunity has been afforded me to appear before you and present the worthy cause because your edict may result in serious consequences in America."Justice Cotillo Asks Duce To Stop Anti-Semitism
The Jewish Transcript, October 21, 1938 He asked for the repeal of the anti-Jewish laws and warned for a boycott of Italian goods in New York, where, as he wrote, "we live in close interdependent relationship" with Jewish people.U.S. Asks Italy To Respect Rights Of American Jews
The New York Times, October 8, 1938Grover, ''Nazis in Newark''
p. 227
/ref>

New York Supreme Court justice

After the 1922 elections, Cotillo became the chairman of the influential State Senate Judiciary Committee, a sign of his rising authority. The post helped him to get ready for a next step. In 1924, he was the first Italian-born to become Justice of the New York Supreme Court, First District, where he would remain until his death.Italian ancestry Politicians in New York
/ref> He was elected with the endorsement of the Tammany Hall political machine, many social welfare organizations and organized labor, the Citizen's Union and several bar organizations.

While an immigrant himself and although he had been an ardent defender of the liberal interpretation of the naturalization law for a long time, in 1939 and in the wake of World War II, Cotillo advocated more stringent naturalization methods. Immigrants would be forced to pay the costs of an exhaustive investigation of their qualifications. He argued that there was a "need for more hesitation in the granting of this charter of liberty to each and every applicant without a more thorough search of each and every applicant's capacity to benefit from such a gift." He also recommended revocation of citizenship when found guilty of fraud or other wrongdoing.Curb On Aliens Urged; Cotillo Suggests Strict Inquiry Before Naturalization
''The New York Times'', May 12, 1939

Earlier, Cotillo had opposed the anti-immigration restrictions of the Immigration Act of 1924 that significantly limited immigration from Italy.Jews Protest Immigration Restrictions
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 4, 1924 In 1931, Cotillo protested against unnecessary stringent requirements of a proposed registration law, particularly the requirement of the equivalent of a public school education and the fingerprinting of applicants. A naturalized citizen had the same rights as native-born and fingerprinting would make the foreign applicant feel like a criminal, Cotillo pointed out. He referred to the findings of the Wickersham Commission that the foreign-born committed considerably less crime than native citizens. He also attacked the revocation of citizenship because of evil doing, while a native born was not affected. At the time, Cotillo claimed to have naturalized some 25,000 immigrants in the eight years he had been on the bench.Cotillo Denounces New Curbs On Alien
''The New York Times'', December 31, 1931

Death and legacy

On July 27, 1939, he died following an operation for a chest tumor at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, Manhattan, New York, at the age of 52. He was survived by his widow, Ida Berthold, and two daughters, Helen Paterno – who had married the son of prominent real estate developer Charles V. PaternoPaterno – Cotillo
''Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' (Society Section), November 24, 1934 – and Sally Cotillo. More than 3,000 people attended his funeral in Saint Patrick's Cathedral, including New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Lieutenant Governor Charles Poletti, District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey and former New York Governor Alfred E. Smith.Notables Attend Cotillo Services
''The New York Times'', August 1, 1939 He was the subject of a biography by Nat Ferber, ''A New American'', published in 1938.

Throughout his life, both as a legislator and judge, he earned a reputation for compassion with the underprivileged and social activism which put that compassion to work. According to New York Governor Alfred E. Smith in his introduction in Cotillo's biography, Cotillo "introduced a new era in social relations between the immigrant and native or older Americans".

For Italian-Americans, Cotillo did not emphasize being American, but emphasized voting: "Become citizens," Cotillo said, "You will then have the right to take part in the government. This is a system of self-government. You Italians, more than others, should understand this. For so long as you leave it to others you will be oppressed by these others," he said, "the longer you remain inarticulate and inactive, by so much longer will you be looked upon as not merely alien in blood and temperament, but in thought and moral philosophy. You will be looked upon as outlaws. Do not delay, for the longer you are held in low esteem, so much the longer will it require to establish yourself as worthy citizens in the eyes of those who today look down on you."

In the obituary of ''The New York Times'', Cotillo was described as "a leader of the Italian Americans in New York". He defended ethnic Italians against the stereotyping by Americans not of Italian descent, but also urged the need for "Americanization" of the Italian community. As such, he stood between the mores of the Italian ethnic ghetto and the judgment and norms of American society.

References

Sources

* Cottilo, Salvatore A. (1922).
Italy During the World War
', Boston: The Christopher publishing house
* Ferber, Nat Joseph (1938).
A New American. From the Life Story of Salvatore A. Cotillo, Supreme Court Justice, State of New York
', New York: Farrar & Rinehart
* Gill, Jonathan (2011).
Harlem: The Four Hundred Year History from Dutch Village to Capital of Black America
', New York: Grove Press,
* Glazer, Nathan & Moynihan, Daniel P. (1963).
Beyond the melting pot; the Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City
', Cambridge, Mass., M.I.T. Press
* Grover, Warren (2003).
Nazis in Newark
', New Brunswick (NJ): Transaction Publishers,
* Henderson, Thomas M. (1979).
Immigrant Politician: Salvatore Cotillo, Progressive Ethnic
', International Migration Review, Vol. 13, No. 1, (Spring, 1979), pp. 81–102
* Nazzaro, Pellegrino (2008).
Fascist and Anti-Fascist Propaganda in America: The Dispatches of Italian Ambassador Gelasio Caetani
', Youngstown (NY): Cambria Press
* Newark, Timothy (2012).
The Mafia at War: Allied Collusion with the Mob
', Havertown (PA): Casemate Publishers
* Shaffer, Thomas L. and Shaffer, Mary M., (1988).
Lawyers as Assimilators and Preservers
', Scholarly Works Notre Dame Law School, Paper 146

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cotillo, Salvatore A
1886 births
1939 deaths
Italian emigrants to the United States
Democratic Party members of the New York State Assembly
Democratic Party New York (state) state senators
New York Supreme Court Justices
People from East Harlem
Fordham University School of Law alumni
20th-century American judges
DeWitt Clinton High School alumni
Manhattan College alumni
20th-century American politicians
American politicians of Italian descent
American lawyers and judges of Italian descent