Bob Ross, a newspaper editor, was also a foundation member of the Socialist League and the Social Democratic Vanguard, which influenced young Edgar's political development.

Around this time he joined the Australian Labor Party and developed a close, sometimes prickly rapport with Ernest Wetherell, editor of the Truth.

In the late 1920s he supported Wetherell and union leader Dick Quintrell against an attempted coup by racial exclusionist Richard Gully.

He vigorously supported the successful campaign for the forty-hour week and was a mining group representative on the New South Wales Labor Council Executive from 1936 to 1966.

[1] In September 1948 Ross participated in a public debate with Fr P. J. Ryan of the Catholic Social Studies Movement on the nature of communism, attracting an audience of 30,000.