one after one
From the Guardian 's own agents the letters of resignation were very much alike , for the company was popular in a modest way , and most of the writers had represented it for many years . `` We are notified by the committee in charge of this district , '' they wrote , `` that in order to secure the customary graded commission scale we must resign our non-Conference companies . We are extremely sorry to let the Guardian go , but the difference to us financially is such that we would not feel justified in declining the Conference offer . '' And so , one after one , they went . Many an agent wrote bitterly attacking the Conference procedure and asking whether the Guardian could not arrange to take care of his entire business , and stating that if this could be done he would retain the Guardian and let the others go . This , however , in nearly every case was out of the question , and eventually all these agencies went with their fellows . During the first month of the new year almost one hundred agents , some of them among the most satisfactory and profitable of the Guardian 's plant , had been compelled to resign .