May 1, 1981

In an emotional speech to an audience that included survivors of Nazi genocide, President Reagan said today that the United States should not negotiate with any country unless the subject of human persecution is ''on that negotiating table.'' After the speech, a White House spokesman said Mr. Reagan had not Transcript of remarks, page A10 meant to alter his policy of playing down the rights issue in foreign relations. Nor did Mr. Reagan mean to warn the Soviet Union, which has been accused of human rights abuses against Jews and others, that the resumption of direct negotiations would be linked to rights issues, according to the spokesman, Larry Speakes, a deputy press secretary. Mr. Speakes said he was explaining Mr. Reagan's remarks on the President's instructions after having gone to him for clarification of his statements to 350 people associated with the President's Commission on the Holocaust.

The United States and Japan reached an agreement this morning to restrain Japanese automobile exports to the United States over a three-year period, officials of the two governments reported. The first-year quota was set at 1.68 million vehicles, compared with 1.82 million Japanese cars sold in the United States in 1980, the Kyodo News Service reported.That was 24 percent of all the cars that Americans bought last year. Mitsubishi Motors won the right to sell cars in the United States independently of Chrysler. Page D1.

The football marching bands of the eight Ivy League colleges will have to clean up their acts at half-time shows, the schools have agreed, following complaints from alumni and parents that the scripts and formations leave too little to the imagination. The performances lean heavily to satire and double-entendre, centered on college news, national politics, current events and - to the dismay of many college administrators - sex. ''You pay money to watch a football game, and they don't put 'R,' 'X' or whatever, on the outside,'' said James Litvack, executive director of the Council of Ivy Group Presidents, which informally agreed to warn the bands. The group discussed the issue earlier this spring after the football season ended. Deans have been approaching band leaders in recent weeks to make clear before the summer break that performances should be toned down when school and football resume in the fall.

Because of an error in a Gallup Poll press release, an article yesterday on a New York Times/CBS News Poll reported incorrectly on the percentage ofthe American public, polled by Gallup last December, that said existing restrictions on handgun sales should be relaxed. Three percent of the public gave Gallup that answer, a number that is statistically indistinguishable from the 4 percent who responded similarly in The Times/ CBS News Poll.

America's oil companies, now so flush with gasoline that some are worried about finding space to store it, are reviving a nearly vanished phenomenon: promoting sales to consumers. In the wake of the Arab oil embargo of 1973-74, advertising aimed directly at selling more gasoline was halted, appearing in subsequent years only sporadically and tied almost exclusively to introducing a new product, such as unleaded premium. Now, however, with plenty of gasoline to sell and some new territory to be won, gasoline advertising is coming back. Several factors have lead to the apparent abundance of gasoline, which is being felt worldwide: continuing high production of crude oil by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, especially Saudi Arabia; a stronger oil production trend in the United States, where companies have been encouraged by the relaxation of price controls, and the broader-than-expected success of oilconservation efforts.