Born. To Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hoover of Boston; a son, christened Alfred Smith.

Engaged. Warren Straton, 20, Manhattan Beaux Arts sculpture student, son of Dr. John Roach Straton; to one Ruth Cater of Douglaston, Queens County, N. Y.

Engaged. Florence Havemeyer, daughter of Henry Osborne Havemeyer (coal, copper, fruit) of Mahwah, New Jersey; to George F. Robinson, naval architect of Manhattan.

Engaged. Arnold W. Jones, ranking U. S. tennisman, onetime Yale and Yale-Harvard team captain (1924), of Providence, R. I.; to Catherine Gardner, granddaughter of George Peabody Gardner (copper, electricity, banks), Boston, Mass.

Married by Proxy. Juan Romero of Toronto, Canada; and Mrs. Judith Romero of Bahia, Brazil; in Bahia, Brazil. Unable, because of business, to attend his own wedding, Groom Romero sent his brother to Brazil to act as proxy Last week Mrs. Romero arrived in Manhattan on the Southern Cross, met her husband for the first time since their engagement.

Married. Arthur R. Thomas of Garnerville, N. Y., brother of Norman Thomas, Socialist candidate for President; to Christine Dann of Beltsville, Md.

Married. Esther du Pont, daughter of Lammot du Pont, Delaware chemicals & explosives tycoon; to Campbell Weir of the Bellanca Airplane Co. of New Castle, Del.; in Wilmington, Del.

Married. Capt. the Viscount Caryl Nicholas Charles Hardinge, 23, fourth Viscount of Lahore and King's Newton, Derbyshire, Aide-de-camp to the Governor-General of Canada since 1926; to Margot Fleming, granddaughter of the late Sir Sanford Fleming, famed Canadian-Pacific railroad engineer & publicist; in Ottawa, Canada.

Elected. Dr. Clark S. Northup, professor of English at Cornell University; to be President of Phi Beta Kappa.

Elected. Senator Hiram Bingham of Connecticut; to be President of the National Aeronautics Association.

Resigned. Mrs. Margaret Sanger of Manhattan; from the presidency of the American Birth Control League.

Bankrupt. Steve Donoghue, who has jockeyed six winners of the famed English Derby, who this year has ridden 108 consecutive losing horses.

Bankrupt. Arthur Benjamin Reeve, novelist, creator of "Craig Kennedy, the Scientific Detective." Author Reeve's affidavit, filed in Manhattan, stated that he owes nearly $40,000.

Died. Harry C. Crafts, "only man who ever defeated Coolidge"; of apoplexy; in Pittsfield, Mass. He once won the post of school committeeman of Northampton, Mass., in a contest with the President.

Died. James Duncan, 71, beloved labor leader, onetime Vice President of the American Federation of Labor (1894-1924); after a long illness; in Quincy, Mass.

Died. Patrick J. ("Paddy") Lynch, 75, famed fireman, hero of the General Slocum disaster; after several years' illness; in Manhattan. In 1904 the General Slocum, filled with Sunday School picnickers, caught fire in Manhattan's East River. The lives of 1,031 were lost. Fireman Lynch rowed zealously back and forth between the blazing steamer and the shore, saved 41 persons.