Salvatore A. Cotillo

Salvatore A. Cotillo
Salvatore Cotillo in 1922
Born	(1886-11-19)November 19, 1886 Naples, Italy
Died	July 27, 1939(1939-07-27) (aged 52) New York City, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, First District
Known for	The first Italian-American to serve in both houses of the New York State Legislature and the first to who served as Justice of the New York State Supreme Court

Salvatore Albert Cotillo (Naples, November 19, 1886 – New York City, July 27, 1939), was an Italian born New York lawyer and politician. He was the first Italian-American to serve in both houses of the New York State Legislature and the first to who served as Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, First District, where he sat on the bench from 1925 until his death in 1939. He was a strong proponent of social and pro-labour legislation.

From Naples to New York

Born in Naples in Italy,^[1] he came to the United States in 1895 with his parents at the age of nine.^[2] His father Francesco Cotillo, was a caterer in Naples; the family originally came from Avellino (Montella), in the hinterland of Naples.^[3] The family settled in East Harlem in East 113th Street among the increasing numbers of Italian immigrants. His father became a well-known caterer and opened a popular pastry shop.^[4] He has been credited to have introduced the Italian ice cream spumoni into the United States.^[5]

The young Salvatore did not speak English and went to Public School 83 and later to DeWitt Clinton High School. In 1911 he graduated in law at the Fordham University^[6] and was admitted to the bar in 1912.^[7][8] His passion was baseball; he was a New York Giants fan and used to clean the seats of the stadium in exchange for free tickets.^[4][9]

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.^[10][11] According to Cotillo, “to Gallucci all people were either hirelings or payers of tribute. It was a matter of concern in the neighbourhood if you were looked down upon by Gallucci.”^[10]

Political career

Cotillo's early law practice included a lot of uncompensated charity for the neighbourhood. Apart from a genuine social compassion, Cotillo was also building political alliances, from his earliest days as a lawyer, 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.^[11] "I want to help my people," he said, "and can do so only with the backing of those in power."^[12]

With his father, Cotillo was among the co-founders of an political club called the Tomahawk Democratic Club that took on the Tammany Hall political machine supporting Nicholas J. Hayes putting forward Henry Lazarus as his opponent. The club got beat 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.^[11][13]

In 1913, at the age of 27, he became the first Italian-born assemblyman. 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.^[8] He advocated for the right to vote for women, gun control, the end of the death penalty and school lunch programmes.^[4]

New York senator

He was a member of the New York State Senate from 1917 to 1923, sitting in the 140th, 141st (both for the 20th District), 142nd, 143rd, 144th, 145th and 146th New York State Legislatures (all five for the 18th District). 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 but rather advocated education and not infringing on civil liberties.^[14]

In May 1918, he was sent to Italy by the President Woodrow Wilson to make a study of the economic conditions of that country after World War I in order to provide information for economic relief programmes and stiffen the Italians to continue the war effort.^[15] He spent the most of that 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.^[8] Based on this experience he wrote the book “Italy During the World War”, published in 1922.^[16]

Back from Italy and in the New York State Senate, he fought hard for the regulation of private banking 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 family in Italy.^[8] He received dead threats and offers of bribes to drop the legislation he had introduced in the Senate.^[17] He was member of the joint legislative Committee on Housing, also known as the Lockwood Committee because it was headed by Charles C. Lockwood, that 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.^[18][19] The Committee 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 in affordable dwellings and the poor quality of the existing ones.^[20] 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).^[8]

He was a Grand Master of the Order Sons of Italy in America (OSIA) and after World War I actively propagated Italian control over Fiume,^[21] but in 1923 warned his American countrymen against the rise of Benito Mussolini saying that the American way was to be preferred above Fascism.^[8] 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. Nevertheless, Cotillo was a staunch supporter of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935.^[22]

New York Supreme Court justice

In 1924, he was the first Italian-born to become Justice of the New York Supreme Court, First District, where he would he remain until his death.^[23]

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.”^[22] He asked for the repeal of the anti-Jewish laws and warned for a boycott of Italian goods in New York “where we live in close interdependent relationship” with Jewish people.^[24][25]

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.^[26]

Earlier, 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 in the eight years he had been on the bench.^[27]

Death and legacy

On July 27, 1939, he died, following an operation for a chest tumor, in the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, Manhattan, New York, at the age of 52.^[8][23] 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.^[28] He was the subject of a biography by Nat Ferber, “A New American”, published in 1938.

References

• 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, ISBN 978-0-8021-1910-0
• Grover, Warren (2003). Nazis in Newark, New Brunswick (NJ): Transaction Publishers, ISBN 978-0-7658-0516-4
• Shaffer, Thomas L. and Shaffer, Mary M., (1988). Lawyers as Assimilators and Preservers, Scholarly Works Notre Dame Law School, Paper 146