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 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.
