THE MAIL
THE NEWYORKER, DECEMBER 2, 2019 3
joined others of conscience in standing
up to the brutal and illegal treatment of
immigrants by rogue federal officials.
Judson MacLaury
Sacramento, Calif.
1
HEAD GAMESNick Paumgarten, in his piece on play-
ing ice hockey, writes evocatively about
the risk of concussion and other inju-
ries (“The Symptoms,” November 11th).
Learning from football, hockey has
begun to clean up its act, significantly
minimizing body contact and focussing
more on demonstrations of skill. In-
stead of taking runs at players and get-
ting into fights, as Paumgarten describes,
there is a new emphasis on positive at-
titudes and good fun. Still, Paumgar-
ten, who is a great writer, should not
be playing hockey, or any sport that
offers the possibility of body or head
contact. Although I understand his de-
sire to keep playing, he should proba-
bly shift his competitive instinct to
something safer, like tennis.
Barry Moline
Sacramento, Calif.As Paumgarten’s competitor and occa-
sional teammate, I agree with him about
the potential costs of playing ice hockey.
It doesn’t seem particularly rational, es-
pecially for middle-aged guys like us,
to keep lacing up for the midnight game
when we have to be at work by nine
the next morning. But, ultimately, the
sport is about camaraderie. When two
teams line up on the ice after the game
to shake their opponents’ hands, one by
one, it represents a rare moment of com-
munity in these fractious times. For me,
that sense of fellowship is somehow
worth the risks.
Steven Geovanis
Brooklyn, N.Y.RADICAL INJUSTICE
Adam Hochschild, in his piece about
America’s deportation of radicals, a hun-
dred years ago, points out that the “most
violent anarchists were largely Italian-
American” (“Obstruction of Injustice,”
November 11th). He cites an attack on
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer,
the perpetrator of which is presumed to
have been Carlo Valdinoci, who was as-
sociated with a cell of anarchists in New
Britain, Connecticut. As a counterpoint
to the example of Valdinoci, my great-
uncles, Joseph and Erasmo Perretta, lived
in New Britain during that time of anti-
immigrant fervor. The brothers were ac-
cused of murder in June, 1918; convicted,
after forty-two minutes of deliberation,
in October; and hanged, after lost ap-
peals, on June 27, 1919. The Hartford
Courant reported that because “both
[were] anarchists” the state did not re-
quire “a decided motive for the killing,”
even though no charges of sedition or any
other illegal activity had been brought
against them. Our family maintains
that the brothers were innocent, and the
scar of their execution remains. For all
we know, they were Galleanists, “apos-
tles for peace,” or simply two Italian
immigrants in the wrong place at the
wrong time.
Jean P. Moore
Greenwich, Conn.
As a retired U.S. Department of Labor
historian, I was gratified that Hochschild
singled out Louis F. Post, an Assistant
Secretary of Labor, for his heroic role in
stymieing the efforts of A. Mitchell
Palmer and J. Edgar Hoover to illegally
deport thousands of aliens. Perhaps un-
surprisingly, Post was also a staunch
advocate for African-American rights.
He was a founding member of the
N.A.A.C.P., in 1909, and he played a
crucial role in the establishment of the
Division of Negro Economics in the
Labor Department, in 1918. That tem-
porary wartime office was the first fed-
eral agency devoted specifically to the
interests of African-American workers.
Then as now, brave federal employees
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