What was going on when I was born?

The International Trade Commission, in a unanimous preliminary finding today determined that imports of carbon steel plate from Belgium, Brazil and Rumania and carbon steel sheet from France may be causing material injury to domestic steelmakers through their sale in the United States at unfairly low prices. The ruling of the five-member, quasi-judicial agency, which deliberates over trade-related matters for the Government, permits an unusual complaint filed last month by the Commerce Department to go forward. The department, in the first trade complaint ever brought by the Government against foreign producers, contended that the low-priced, subsidized steel from these countries is causing hardship to the domestic industry, now beset by high unemployment, declining production and evaporating new orders.

President Reagan will not consider proposals for ''selective tax increases'' until early next year, his White House chief of staff said today. The move was a sign of the President's growing resistance to the urging of his advisers that he raise taxes to reduce budget deficits. The announcement by James A. Baker 3d signaled the postponement of a plan that his senior advisers had put together to present to Mr. Reagan this week. The plan included proposals to raise taxes by $15 billion in the 1983 fiscal year, which starts next Oct. 1, and by $30 billion in 1984.

FOR A WORTHY CAUSE: Jane Pickens Hoving, second from left, chairman of the Salvation Army's Greater New York advisory board, sang yesterday to help collect donations at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. With her were Joan Fontaine, left, the actress, and two former Metropolitan Opera stars, Licia Albanese and Robert Merrill.

More than a year ago, when the Solidarity movement was at flood tide in Poland, some 300,000 workers at 30 Silesian coal mines struck to establish self-governing trade unions. Their victory then, like the gesture of their fellow workers now holding out in at least two mines, was a symbol of the stubbornness of one of the most independent slices of Polish life. Now, only days before Christmas, most of the workers in the two mines chose to remain underground in the dark and cold, with little food and water, in private rebellion against the martial law that now rules Poland. ''It is the most effective form of strike,'' Richard T. Davies, a former Ambassador to Poland, said. ''As long as they have enough food and water, they are safe. They are not going to send troops down into the shafts.''

In Siberia, a writer steps into the path of progress A2 Druse families still meet in Golan zone controlled by U.N. A3 Syrian leader flies to Saudi Ara- bia for talks A3 Brezhnev says he still favors meeting with Reagan A4 Salvadoran rebel leader appeals for arms aid A6 Polish regime to relax curfew for Christmas Eve mass A8 Vietnamese Foreign Minister welcomes U.S. war veterans A10 Around the World A11 Catholics in Northern Ireland bit- ter about house searches A11 Government/Politics Bell criticizes Federal rules on colleges A12 Council leaders say plan could lead to elections in spring B3 State agency orders Consolidated Edison refund of $40 million B3 Washington Talk Briefing B4 Embassy row B4 A look at past and present White House Christmases B4 An Administration official speaks for cities and states B4 Energy Panel asks proposed diesel pollu- tion limits be delayed D16 General Ex-Nazi loses citizenship but is al- lowed to stay in U.S. A14 Ex-C.I.A. agent's business associ- ate arrested in Texas A14 Around the Nation A14 Five-year, $7.9 billion transit im- provement plan is approved B7 Health/Science Generic drug law upheld by New York Court of Appeals B3 The Living Section Food The nitrite question: What can you eat? C1 The seasoning of a three-star chef C1 A treasury of Dickens's drink recipes C3 The 60-Minute Gourmet C3 Wine Talk C7 Living Christmas spirit - on the family plan C1 Metropolitan Diary C2 Personal Health C5 Best Buys C6 Discoveries C8 Arts/Entertainment Marketing of films; right way and wrong way C9 Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra with Swiss pianist C10 Y Chamber Symphony presents Mozart and French music C10 Chic discovers there is life after disco C12 Hee-Sun Lee in oboe recital C13 "Hansel and Gretel" at Met C13 Richard Westenburg and Musica Sacra present "Messiah" C13 Features/Notes About New York B3 Sports People B9 Notes on People C20 Going Out Guide C12 Obituaries Allan Dwan, movie director B5 Sports Red Smith on Bowie Kuhn and his opponents B6 Pat Sheehan prospering in shift from skiing to golf B6 John Henry named horse of the year B6 76ers down Knicks, 112-105 B7 Islanders win 5th in row, topping Jets, 5-2 B7 Yanks close to agreement with Collins but not Jackson B7 Giants' unanswered question is availability of Van Pelt B7 B6 Jets' Ward has score to settle with Bills B7 Patriots dismiss Ron Erhardt B8 News Analysis John Herbers on priorities of state and local officials A12 Tony Schwartz assesses cable TV's present and future C8 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A18 The recession dividend Making coal pay for itself How ideology drowns charity Topics: space, time and mud Letters A18 James Reston: the old and new Jerusalem A19 Russell Baker: Red and dead as a doornail A19 Robert Pastor: for a Caribbean compact A19 Edward G. Rogoff: disserving taxi riders A19 Rusty Davenport: monitor El Sal- vador's border A19

A Federal judge ruled yesterday that New York State must continue to transfer its prisoners from New York City jails to state prisons within 48 hours of completion of processing procedures. The 14-page ruling, by Judge Morris E. Lasker in Federal District Court in Manhattan, rejected a motion by the state to modify the transfer order Judge Lasker issued last August. In the city-state dispute, the state contended that it needed more time to build additional prison facilities, but the city argued that the judge should enforce the order to ease crowding in its jails.

The state police said today that fingerprints linked a man they believed to be a member of an extremist group in New England with the murder Tuesday of a New Jersey state trooper. The slain trooper, Philip Lamonaco, 32 years old, was found on an isolated stretch of Interstate 80 in Warren County near the Pennsylvania border. Trooper Lamonaco had received many citations and had been named Trooper of the Year in 1979 by a state police awards board. Col. Clinton L. Pagano, Superintendent of the state police, said that fingerprints found by the police in an abandoned vehicle believed to be the getaway car belonged to Thomas William Manning, 35, a fugitive wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on bank robbery charges in Maine.

The International Harvester Company said today that it expects to announce Wednesday the completion of its $4.15 billion debt restructuring program. Norman Buckingham, a Harvester spokesman, said that the company was not aware of any holdouts to the agreement, and that the lenders hesitant to go along had capitulated late Monday and today. Analysts said that the larger banks involved had exerted considerable pressure on a group of their more reluctant brethren.

Because of an editing error, an article Monday on a trend to disarm private security guards incorrectly reported a statement by John Horan, head of the Committee of National Security Companies Inc. Mr. Horan said no more than 10 per cent of the guards employed by the large national companies associated with his committee were now armed.

Raymond J. Donovan, the Secretary of Labor, asked today for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate assertions that an official of a company he was associated with passed a bribe to a union official in his presence in 1977. Mr. Donovan read a statement in which he called Mario Montuoro, the former union official who made the charges to Federal investigators, a ''damnable and contemptible liar.'' His voice rising sharply, Mr. Donovan declared, ''I suggest that a special prosecutor be appointed immediately, that he be given full authority to investigate all the charges made by Mr. Montuoro against me and against Schiavone Construction Company, and that he inform the American public as quickly as possible of the falsity of these allegations.'' Mr. Donovan spoke at a news conference in the Labor Department auditorium. The Justice Department has been considering naming a special prosecutor, and a source at the department said later today that Attorney General William French Smith was expected to name the prosecutor within a day or two.

In the battle for the President's ear, Representative Jack F. Kemp of upstate New York, chairman of the House Republican Conference, has been in the forefront of those urging President Reagan to reject advice that he include revenue-raising measures in the 1983 budget, now being prepared. Mr. Kemp was prominent among the original sponsors of a three-year, across-theboard cut in tax rates, enacted in August as the heart of the President's program. In an interview today with Edward Cowan of The New York Times, Mr. Kemp explained and defended the view from the supply side. Q. Congressman, you have repeatedly expressed what sounds like opposition to any increase in taxes of any kind, even though there are some substantial deficits coming up. Is that your position and, if so, why? A. I'm not so sure I agree that there are substantial deficits coming up. But I'm not against a tax increase under all circumstances. I am at present opposed to a tax increase and I would say that most supply-siders are because we think that now the attention should be focused on restoring faith in monetary policy to get interest rates down.

Some of America's big corporations are contributing to a multimillion-dollar lobbying fund to push for passage of a telecommunications bill that the American Telephone and Telegraph Company finds too restrictive. In fact, representatives of two dozen communications companies, including some of A.T.& T.'s competitors as well as its customers, met today and reportedly pledged $1 million to $2 million to start the lobbying fund. It will be used to try to win passage of a bill drafted by Representative Timothy E. Wirth, chairman of the House communications subcommittee, that would set the rules for A.T.& T.'s entry into unregulated businesses. The companies said they want to organize a ''grass-roots'' campaign for the Wirth bill to match A.T.& T.'s lobbying efforts in opposition to the measure. Most communications companies favor the bill because it would restrict A.T.& T.'s future operations in the increasingly competitive field of advanced communications.