The sense of futility in this scene does not go so far as to deny that the San Tomé mine is what it set out to be: a stable, prosperous power in the land. Nostromo admits all the virtues of the material interests in terms of creating stability, justice and "commonest decencies"; it merely denies that these successes somehow cure mankind of its need for perpetual conquest. This sentence acknowledges the San Tomé mine's accomplishments while at the same time showing the crowd of greedy hands reaching to use it for their own purposes.