Preliminary “celebration” of Halloween has reached a serious stage when celebrants venture into the realm of outright viciousness and commit or attempt to commit sabotage in their quest for “fun.”

That the tempo of the youthful indulgence in preliminary pranks will speed up as Halloween nears may be expected, unless the pranksters are given to understand that resort to sabotage must be stopped right away.

Two ways of halting the nuisance may be suggested:

One is to employ and alert and efficient force of plain clothes officers.

Another is to make parents understand they are the custodians of their children and will be held strictly to account for any misdeeds their children may commit.

Both plans should be used.

No one wishes to deprive young Americans of innocent fun, but tampering with automobile tires and pranks of that character rank as positively malicious, often resulting in an excusable destruction of property.

It might not be necessary to arrest Halloween pranksters, but already some have permitted enthusiasm to get the better of good judgement, and damage has already been reported to the authorities.

Youngsters can have a lot of fun without destruction. This year we are a country at war and things should be different.

There should be no celebrants who violate the rights of others in this Halloween season.