[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 143 (Wednesday, September 21, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S5955]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  RECOGNIZING MORRIS & DICKSON CO. LLC

 Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, oftentimes the truest test of a 
small business's strength is its longevity. In Louisiana, our small 
businesses have worked through countless challenges and survived for 
generations to improve the lives of their neighbors and make 
substantial contributions to the economy. In honor of their 175th 
anniversary, I would like to present Morris & Dickson Co. LLC of 
Shreveport, LA, with the Senate Small Business Legacy Award for the 
important achievements of this Louisiana-based small business success 
story.
  In 1841, John Worthington Morris opened J. W. Morris & Co., an 
independent pharmacy in downtown Shreveport, LA. Working out of a 
single riverfront warehouse, J.W. first received goods by steamboat 
from New Orleans and, with the help of his brother, Thomas Henry, ran 
his namesake small business until his death 12 years later. A second 
generation of the Morris family continued J.W.'s legacy until Claudius 
Dickson bought the business in 1899, renaming it to be Morris & Dickson 
Co. Claudius worked with members of the Morris family to grow their 
wholesale pharmaceutical business. As technology improved, with new 
railway lines and gasoline-powered trucks, Morris & Dickson Co. 
embraced the revolutionary improvements to distribute their 
pharmaceuticals in Louisiana and the surrounding States.
  In order to survive the Civil War, the Great Depression, as well as 
the day-to-day struggles of running a successful business, the leaders 
of Morris & Dickson Co. took advantage of each technological 
improvement to ensure the company would stay afloat.
  It wasn't until the 1980s that Morris & Dickson Co. grew 
exponentially and became a nationally recognized competitor. At the 
time, Morris & Dickson Co. was working out of the same building it had 
first moved into in 1905. Nearly eight decades later, they were still 
transporting goods in a manual freight elevator and used a dumbwaiter 
or rope bucket to send orders upstairs. Claudius's son Markham Allen 
Dickson recognized that major changes had to be made and, much like his 
predecessors, had an immense respect for technology's growing 
influence. M. Allen's foresight and ingenuity allowed the family-owned 
business to grow to become the region's leading wholesale drug 
distributor. He moved the company out of downtown Shreveport and 
utilized the early use of computers. Under his leadership, Morris & 
Dickson Co. exploded on the national wholesale pharmaceutical scene. By 
2013, Morris & Dickson Co. was the fourth largest pharmaceutical 
distributor in the Nation.
  Still driven by the 175-year-old ambition to elevate the standard of 
patient care for their neighbors and community, today Morris & Dickson 
Co. is run by M. Allen's son, Paul Dickson. Morris & Dickson Co. has a 
well-earned reputation for persevering through many hardships by 
embracing innovation in order to harness the power of an ever-changing 
economy and increasingly technology-driven world.
  Today, Morris & Dickson Co. provides operational and logistic 
innovation support for independent pharmacies. This includes everything 
from ontime delivery of pharmaceutical inventory to inventory 
management software. With Morris & Dickson Co.'s help, independent 
pharmacies in 14 States can focus on supporting and improving the 
health of their local communities, while also remaining financially 
solvent.
  This Shreveport-based family-run business is a great example of the 
American Dream in action, and companies like Morris & Dickson certainly 
serve as role models for the next generation of entrepreneurs. I 
congratulate the hard-working folks at Morris & Dickson Co. LLC on 175 
years in business and for the well-deserved honor of the Senate Small 
Business Legacy Award.

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