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He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of Michael and Grace (Decon) Frayne, both of whom had emigrated from Ireland in 1850. He was only eight years old when he took his first job as breaker boy in the anthracite mine fields, and he remained at this work until he reached the age of twelve.
He was then apprenticed to a sheet-metal worker and after becoming a journeyman followed this trade until 1900.
As a young man Frayne became interested in labor unionism and joined the Knights of Labor in the eighties, when that organization was in the midst of its stormy career.
In the meantime, 1901, he was appointed a general organizer of the American Federation of Labor and stationed in New York City, succeeding Herman Robinson. He served in this position until his death.
Throughout his life he was engaged in many forms of activity both inside and outside of the labor movement. As a means of improving the lot of the man who works, Frayne was active in the campaign to make the eight-hour day universal; he helped to promote a program for one day's rest in seven; took a prominent part in the widespread effort then being made to abolish child labor; and manifested a keen interest in the attempts to eliminate industrial hazards.
One of his major interests, however, was in the problem of prison labor, and among his suggestions for its better utilization was that it be employed in connection with a national system of roads.
His career reached its peak during the First World War when he was appointed chairman of the labor division of the war industries board.
He was largely responsible for the campaign to reclaim waste materials and in recognition of this and other services during his tenure he was presented with the Distinguished Service Medal by Congress in 1923.
At the close of the war he devoted a large amount of energy to advocating plans for the retraining of disabled war veterans. Throughout his life Frayne belonged to the more conservative wing of organized labor.
While not essentially a labor organizer he was active in behalf of the ladies' garment workers in their strike in 1910, enlisting the support of many of his friends outside the labor movement and helping to raise funds to finance the walkout.
He also aided materially in launching the union movement among actors of the legitimate stage and in organizing what later became the Actors' Equity Association.
Whenever he was called upon for advice and assistance he responded generously. He did not, however, regard organizing non-unionists and leading armies of strikers as his major function but considered himself as labor's ambassador to the people of New York and spent most of his efforts seeking to gain for labor a more sympathetic understanding.
Consequently, no small part of his energies were expended in public speaking and in working with non-labor groups.
He was always ready to sponsor public causes and to serve on committees, partly because of a natural sympathy with efforts at civic improvement and partly because he regarded such honors as recognition of the importance of organized labor.
Although his work was crowned by no spectacular achievement, he was of that group whose efforts created a better understanding of the objectives of labor movements and smoothed the road for labor missionaries.
He always insisted that a labor official should be above suspicion, and he helped to bring about the Lockwood investigation of the New York building trades in 1920, which uncovered the collusive practices of contractors, dealers in material, and labor leaders and led to the prosecution of a number of employers and the imprisonment of Robert P. Brindell, the president of the Building Trades' Council, on charges of bribery.
Frayne died in his sixty-fifth year in New York City after an illness of several months.
He served as vice-president and director of the National Committee on Prisons and Prison Labor. In 1892 he became a charter member of the sheet-metal workers' union and in 1900 he was elected as a general vice-president of the Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers International Alliance, a position he held until 1904. He was, in fact, one of those who did much to create the point of view which made possible the enactment of the Norris-LaGuardia anti-injunction and the Wagner national labor relations acts.
Throughout his life Frayne belonged to the more conservative wing of organized labor.
He opposed violence and the more aggressive methods in favor of peaceful persuasion, conciliation, and arbitration. He was thus ready to join and to cooperate with the National Civic Federation, in which he came into close contact with representatives of capital and of the general public.
On November 8, 1888, he married Mary E. Cawley, and three sons, John, Joseph, and Hugh, were born to them.
