The History of the Standard Oil Company/Volume 1/Appendix/Number 4
NUMBER 4 (See page 55)
TESTIMONY OF HENRY M. FLAGLER ON THE SOUTH IMPROVEMENT COMPANY
[Proceedings in Relation to Trusts, House of Representatives, 1888. Report Number 31 12, pages 289-290.]
A. . . . Neither of the Messrs. Rockefeller, Colonel Payne, nor myself, nor any one connected with the Standard Oil Company, ever had any confidence in or regard for the scheme known as the South Improvement Company. We did not believe in it, but the view presented by other gentlemen was pressed upon us to such an extent that we acquiesced in it to the extent of subscribing our names to a certain amount of the stock, which was never paid for. The company never did a dollar's worth of business, and never had any existence other than its corporative existence, which it obtained through its charter. Through its president it negotiated certain railroad contracts, which, as I remember now, were signed by the company and by the officers of the railroad. Those contracts were held in escrow a few weeks and were destroyed or cancelled by mutual consent.
Q. Who presented these views to you gentlemen? Who was the person that had charge of this South Improvement Company's scheme?
A. I think Mr. Warden and the Messrs. Logan were the great leaders in the South Improvement Company policy.