THE FOREST AROUND US
One guy who gained plenty of popularity in the woods, especially around.logging camps, is the old-time traveling salesman, who has just about.become extinct. In his regular column, Bill Moore pays recognition to these.stalwart chaps, especially Jack Monahan.
 

customer, and the good fellowship would flow as the order was being written up.
Well, the day of these men is near past and now instead we have the salesmen who cover the camps by aircraft, car, or fast boat. They are primarily the same type of men, quite dedicated to their trade, and most often having a very pleasing character. A new or old joke or two, and a “How are you fixed for blades” – grader blades these days – not Gillette. One can’t help but enjoy the good salesman. They can bring a lift to a troubled day in the woods when the logs don’t come just right.
....Take Monahan for one, known as Jack, and known by loggers up and down this coast. I’ve known Jack, and known by loggers up and down this coast. I’ve known Jack Monahan for 25 years and I’ve yet to know of the time this man couldn’t deliver to the logger a good product, with good back up, and always be welcomed back for a second sale. I don’t think you could find, anywhere in this forest around us, a man more dedicated to producing. And this industry is a better industry for the attention that guys like Monahan give us.
....I remember the Christmas eve at 5 in the afternoon when logger Jeppy Hol phoned Jack from Port Hardy and wanted 2 dozen chokers on the old Union boat that night at 8. He got ‘em too! Or the time Harry McQillan wanted a steel tower mounted on a steel sled to be skidded around in the bush as a cold-decker. He got it, and it worked! When Jack at one time sold used wire rope, there were a lot of small loggers up and down the

And then there was Monahan

.............................................. ....There are a lot of people doing a lot of things to bring the trees from the forest around us to the market place. There are executive loggers and managers laying plans for forest companies, that sell the end product of trees around this old globe.
....I wouldn’t be surprised, espe-cially with the soft market these days, to find them burning the midnight oil on plans to ship pulp and 2x4’s to the Moon and Mars when the shuttle service begins.
....There are thousands of woods loggers and mill men doing their shifts to cut and produce the materials that will build the houses, print the newspapers and keep the products moving. Add to these the forestry people of the government, the teachers of forestry students, the builders of forestry machinery and, I suppose, even the grocers and merchants who feed, clothe and supply this giant industry.
....Someone said the forest industry is in danger of dropping to number two, like Avis. Well, stop all the people from, and associated with, this industry, and I’ll show you a totally crippled B.C. Let the tourist industry top that if it wants to be number one. Don’t get me wrong, I sort of like tourists, but lets keep the perspective.
....Now there are all these people in the forest, or near it, or a part of it, and yet there is one type of individual who has always contributed so much, but, I’ll be darned if I see him being mentioned in the honor rolls when the backs are being slapped. I refer to the salesman of the machines and goods that allow us to move the logs from the stump to the water.
....Here is a unique and rather dedicated man, and I speak of the

 

......................................................... old-timers at this business, not the come and go ones. They still have to earn their stripes. I’d like to talk about these men of sales. I’ve known a lot of them, and I believe their contribution to our productivity often gets overlooked.
....How do they contribute? Well, let’s see. They roam about in the forests, the camps, the offices, and they are in close touch with the men in charge. They have something to sell, be it iron or plastic, and they find out what we need and they supply us. Maybe a log-loader with a new slack-puller, or a power saw with a lighter weight – or perhaps a dozer boat with a better push. There’s a lot of these men and they know their stuff, and they pass it on to us so that we can better watch that immortal word – “cost.”
....And cost is the by-word in camps and mills these days. I always find it a pleasure to see a knowledgeable salesman come to camp to discuss his product, and to batter around some ideas. Nowadays many of them fly about the coast in small float-type aircraft. Their by-word is service and they generally have a pretty good grasp of what is going on in the different places they visit.
....When I think of these sales experts I am often reminded of the men known as “travelers” who used to cover their territory in the old days on the good ship Maquinna, on the west coast of Van-couver Island. There would be a meat man, a Mc & Mc man, a Malkin man and one or two others. At every stop the good ship made the “travelers” would always be out at the gangplank or the lower hatch to talk to logging or fishing customers and take an order.
....They would possibly have with them a small bottle of warmth for the

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British Columbia Lumberman, August, 1971

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coast who depended on him to get them good used chokers and mainlines, and still hold the cost down. He delivered, and helped keep the loggers from having to pay new prices they simply could not afford at the time.
....Jack Monahan and men like him in the sales end of forest machines and supplies, such as Gordon Wilfert of Esco, or Harold Jones of Kenworth, or John Usborne of Wrights, to name just three of the many, are a credit to the products they represent. And they are a challenge to their competition, and also admired by their competition. And so it is, as it has never been before, a field of intense competition – this marketing of forest products. Good purchasing agents throughout the industry lean on the Monahans for sound advice and straight talk. They are trusted by many who have
 

to make decisions that can mean the
difference between a profit and loss on a logging show.
....So Monahan – here’s to you – and your sales colleagues in the machinery
and supply end of our forest industry. Thanks for the late hours of work looking up some gizmo to fix a what-cha-ma-callit on an iron monster, in a hurry. Thanks for keeping in touch like you do with an industry that just can’t afford to be out of touch, and thanks for the years of making this forest around us a place where there are a lot of darn nice people like you.
....Now Monahan, about that 3/8” left-hand threaded pipe for a throttle valve on a 1907 13 x 14 Willamette steam donkey – could you get me one by yesterday?
........Keep out of the bight,