Alger is clearly making a statement about what you have to do in America to become rich. He's saying that you need two things. First, you need to be a pro-actively nice person. When the kid falls into the river, Dick risks his own life to save the child. Most people today are nice, but they aren't the kind of person who would go out and try to make the world a better place without being asked. Dick saves the kid without hearing that the father would offer a fortune to the person who saves his son.
The other thing that Alger is saying is that as you work your way to the top, don't step on other people to get there. Dick pays the entire rent for his room, even though he has a room mate. When he and his room mate, Fosdick, decide to move to a better room in a better neighborhood, Dick says that he is going to refer all of his shoe-shining customers to Johnny Nolan, another shoe-shiner who is having trouble keeping business up.
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