So many comrades have come before us. Theresa Malkiel remembers the Socialist barber from Albany who went to prison for protesting the war and died at only 35, Angelo Creo.

‘In Memory of Angelo Creo’ by Theresa Malkiel from Socialist World. Vol. 15 No. 12. December, 1924.

Angelo Creo who died in a New York Hospital Thursday, Nov. 27th. 1924. was one of the many martyrs who fell victims to the war hysteria and its consequent persecution.

A member of the Socialist Party in local Albany he with three other comrades of the same local spent almost two years in jail. Sent there for the distribution of a leaflet calling for peace on earth, good will to men.

His care and protection of the older comrades in jail with him made Creo beloved to all those who knew of his devotion and many sacrifices made in order to lighten the burden of the others.

Released from the penitentiary Angelo felt a desire to learn more of the class struggle theoretically in order to serve his class the better actually. He was the most zealous student in the full time class in the Rand School which he joined upon his arrival in New York. Every free minute of his time he gave to the New York Call, doing field work among the trade unions.

As a member of the Barbers’ Union he served the organization faithfully in time of peace and threw himself enthusiastically into the work during the last strike. His wonderful work won his recognition and, though a new comer in New York, he was unanimously chosen organizer of his local. At this post he worked day and night until carried to the hospital. He waited too long, medical aid could no longer save him, he died two days later.

In him the Labor and Socialist movement beheld an idealist of bygone days, a devotee of the type of Ben Hanford, a gentle, loving comrade like our own Gene, a bitter enemy of capitalism and its consequent ills, determined not to stop or stoop before any obstacle in his quest of human redemption. Since his type is becoming extinct in our midst, his loss is the greater. Let us then bear in mind that out there- in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Long Island, in a modest grave lies buried a powerful soul. He died that humanity may live- his work and devotion should serve as a beacon of light- an example to all the comrades he left behind.

The Socialist World was published monthly and, after the tumult of 1917-1919 and the demise of Socialist Appeal (1914-1917), became the party’s more or less official voice in 1920. Published in Chicago as an official paper of the Socialist Party of America, and nominally edited by Eugene Debs for much of its run, it was Debs’ main outlet for articles. Otto Branstetter was the managing editor. It ceased publishing in August of 1926 to form American Appeal as a semi-official organ of the Socialist Party of America in the later 1920s.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/socialist-world/v05n12-dec-1924-Soc-World.pdf