Fry's Army was the informal name given to a short-lived radical protest movement organized in

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California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

in 1894 and headed by

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

and

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

political activist Lewis C. Fry. Fry's Army was one of about 40 "Industrial Armies" formed in 1894 to organize and transport unemployed workers for a march on

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, the best remembered of which was the

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-based movement known as

Coxey's Army Coxey's Army was a protest march by unemployed workers from the United States, led by Ohio businessman Jacob Coxey. They marched on Washington, D.C. in 1894, the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in United State ...

. Beginning with an enrollment of 850 people, the "army" made a difficult cross-country journey by foot following the refusal of railroads to transport the protestors. Two trains were stolen in the course of the march, which brought Fry's Army into conflict with the authorities. Key support was gained from the Governor of Texas, which prevented mass arrest or a worse outcome, but rail transport ended in St. Louis and the remaining members of the group began a difficult march by foot. In these adverse conditions the movement melted away, splitting into rival factions in

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

. Only a small handful of protestors eventually arriving in Washington, DC with Fry, where their protest efforts were ineffectual.

History

Background

The American economy went through a protracted depression during the decade of the 1890s, signaled by a dramatic drop of the stock market and a financial panic beginning in May 1893.Stuart B. Kaufman and Peter J. Albert (eds.), ''The Samuel Gompers Papers: Volume 3, Unrest and Depression, 1891-94.'' Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1989; pg. 363. By the end of 1893 more than 16,000 businesses and 500 banks had closed their doors, with approximately 2 million workers cast into the ranks of the unemployed. By the height of the depression in 1894 nearly 20 percent of the non-agricultural workforce would be idled by the crisis, remembered to history as the

Panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. It deeply affected every sector of the economy, and produced political upheaval that led to the political realignment of 1896 and the pre ...

. Lewis C. Fry, a former soldier, was a general organizer for the fledgling

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutua ...

and a member of the

Socialist Labor Party of America The Socialist Labor Party (SLP)"The name of this organization shall be Socialist Labor Party". Art. I, Sec. 1 of thadopted at the Eleventh National Convention (New York, July 1904; amended at the National Conventions 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 1924 ...

.Franklin Folsom, ''Impatient Armies of the Poor: The Story of Collective Action of the Unemployed, 1808-1942.'' Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado, 1991; pg. 170. Fry was captivated by the idea of the Industrial Army movement of 1894, the notion of gathering and transporting unemployed workers stricken by the economic crisis for a mass march on the halls of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

to force ameliorative and substantive change to end the economic crisis. In February 1894, with an inadequate 6-week city-level program for unemployment relief coming to an end, "General" Fry began to organize his so-called Industrial Army.Grace Heilman Stimson, ''Rise of the Labor Movement in Los Angeles.'' Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1955; pg. 156. An experienced political activist well accustomed to public speaking, Fry carefully screening all those who wished to join the so-called Commonweal movement.Folsom, ''Impatient Armies of the Poor,'' pg. 171. On March 5, Fry's newly organized "army" approved a simple three-point program for enactment, calling for federal employment of the unemployed, a ban on immigration to the United States for ten years, and a prohibition of ownership of land by non-citizens. By the middle of that same month, more than 800 people had been enrolled in the new movement and preparations began to be made to take the "army" east to put political pressure on Congress for implementation of the group's objectives. A call was made to supporters for the donation of food and blankets to supply the unemployed activists who would be making the trip.

Departure

Fry initially attempted to garner the support of the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was ...

for his effort in the form of provision of free railroad passage. The railroad unsurprisingly refused this request and on March 16, 1894, Fry and a reduced force of 600 disciplined supporters set out on foot to make the several thousand mile trek from Los Angeles on the west coast to Washington, DC on the east. The group seized a Southern Pacific train at

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and proceeded with it some 20 miles eastward to

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, where several thousand pounds of

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, bacon, and beans were gathered by sympathizers. Thus provisioned, the stolen train proceeded eastwards across the desert lands of the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...

, making it as far as

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the ...

. In El Paso the group raised additional provisions from sympathetic citizens following a peaceful march through town before stealing another train, which railroad officials permitted to depart the town with about 800 people aboard. Once outside the city, the stolen train was intentionally sidetracked at the tiny town of

Sierra Blanca, Texas Sierra Blanca is an unincorporated area in Hudspeth County, Texas, United States. It is also the county seat of the county and the namesake of a census-designated place (CDP) in which it is located. The town is part of the Trans-Pecos region of far ...

, where the Texas Rangers moved in at the railroad's behest to hold the train-stealing "Industrial Army" as de facto prisoners. Texas Governor "Big Jim" Hogg was sympathetic to the cause of Fry's Army, however, and he ordered the Rangers to end their action against what he termed the "petition in boots."Folsom, ''Impatient Armies of the Poor,'' pp. 171-172. In a show of public support, Gov. Hogg sent a telegram to the ''Dallas Times Herald'' declaring

"When a railroad company hauls tramps or unemployed penniless men into this State it cannot dump them into a barren desert and murder them by torture and starvation without atoning for it, if there is any virtue in the machinery of justice. Nor will I permit them to be shot down on Texas soil by any armed force whatever, no matter how much the Southern Pacific and the other enemies of the state may howl about the
commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...
."Folsom, ''Impatient Armies of the Poor,'' pg. 172.

A standoff emerged between the railroad, which continued to hold Fry's Army as virtual prisoners in an essentially unpopulated desert whistle stop, and the so-called Industrial Army and their supporters. The stalemate was broken only when trade unions and concerned citizens of El Paso raised funds to pay for provisions and a special train with five passenger coaches and two baggage cars to transport the unemployed workers as far as

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. Fry was aware that he was targeted for arrest as the ringleader of the train-stealing escapade and he attempted to elude arrest by boarding a passing freight train. He was soon discovered, however, and removed from the train, making his own way to the state capital of Austin, where the rest of Fry's Army was now located. An effort was made to march to the Governor's mansion to thank him for his support but this was prevented by local police, who packed the would-be protestors tightly into boxcars and sent the group north to

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Dissolution

On April 3, 1894, the 600 remaining members of Fry's Army arrived in St. Louis, where they were refused additional rail transportation. The decision was made to once again begin the long trek to Washington by foot. Although the size of the group swelled to about 800 during the early part of this overland trek, hunger and exhaustion set in and the so-called army melted away. By the time the group reached

it was bitterly divided over tactics and split into two rival groups.Folsom, ''Impatient Armies of the Poor,'' pg. 173. Only a small number of participants ever reached Washington, DC with Fry for the May 1 march on Congress, which ultimately proved ineffectual.

Legacy

After changing the spelling of his first name to Louis, Lewis C. Frye would twice run for Governor of Missouri, appearing on the ballot as the nominee of the

in the elections of

1896 Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wil ...

and

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), ...

Footnotes

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