Democracy Works

Leno Yard was born 20 years ago in New York's teeming, fetid Harlem. Ambitious, he went .to big (7,693 pupils) DeWitt Clinton High School, where he went out for track, and studied hard. He graduated in 1941, clerked for a while in a bookstore. He wanted to help in the war. So he enrolled for a four-month course in machine-shop work at the National Youth Administration's Quoddy training center near Eastport, Me., site of the defunct Passamaquoddy power project.

At Quoddy, slim, big-muscled, dark-skinned Leno was immediately popular among the 740 white boys, 60 Negroes. He wrote pieces on sports for their paper, the Quoddy Eagle. He excelled in games, became known for sincerity and fair play, participated eagerly in the camp's student government, joined the whites and Negroes in helping Project Director Louis Varrichione run Quoddy.

Last week fellow trainees elected Leno Camp Mayor by a large majority. No politico, Leno had a simple platform: "To develop a greater war-conscious spirit in the camp." His post-election statement: "I am deeply impressed at this vote of confidence. Democracy really can work."

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