Roberts began a career in the newspaper industry by working as a printer's apprentice at the Fort Dodge Times, and later the Fort Dodge Messenger.[1] He served briefly as city editor of the Sioux City Journal.[1] In 1878, he purchased the Fort Dodge Messenger and served as its editor.[1] Roberts was active in the Republican Party of Iowa and, in 1883, was elected State Printer of Iowa, an office he held until 1889.[1] In 1902, he and a partner purchased the Iowa State Register and the Des Moines Leader, which they merged to form the Des Moines Register and Leader.[1]
Author and journalist
As a newspaper editor, Roberts was particularly interested in economic and monetary policy. He was an opponent of free silver.[1] In 1894, he published a response to William Hope Harvey's Coin's Financial School (1893), entitled Coin at School in Finance.[1] He followed this up with Money, Wages and Prices (1895) and Iowa and the Silver Question (1896).[1] Both of these works were important parts of the campaign that defeated William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 U.S. presidential election.[1] In 1902, Roberts authored the Iowa Republican Party's platform on tariffs, which criticized protectionism and supported reciprocity.[1]
In 1916, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.[2] He became a vice president of the bank in 1919, a position he held until 1931, when he became one of the bank's economic advisers, a position he held until his death.[1]
From 1914 to 1940, Roberts edited the bank's monthly economic letter, an investment bulletin dealing with world events, economic affairs, and national and international finances.[1] In 1929, he headed a delegation of financiers to Panama to study that country's finances.[1] He was a member of the Gold Delegation of the Financial Committee of the League of Nations from 1930 to 1932.[1]
