July 29, 1982

With second-quarter earnings out, the nation's major car makers appear somewhat healthier. General Motors and Chrysler earned more than had been expected, and Ford had its first profit in a year. But the earnings are thin by any measure - G.M., which not so long ago had billion-dollar quarters, is not even expected to reach that total for the year - and they reflect a slimming down of operations rather than any growth. In fact, the United States automobile industry is halfway through its fourth year of recession - depression is the term used here - with little indication that the public plans to return to the showrooms soon. As the assembly lines shut down for the traditional late-summer changeover to 1983 models, industry leaders and analysts alike expect that total sales this year will amount to as few as 8.2 million cars. With imports accounting for 2.2 million, the domestic industry will have sold barely 6 million cars, its worst year since 1961. And inventories of unsold cars stand at a 78-day supply, with 60 days the comfortable norm.

The House of Representatives, in a break with custom, voted tonight to go to conference with the Senate on the Senate's three-year, $99 billion revenue-raising bill without first passing its own separate tax measure. The vote, 208 to 197, greatly improved the prospects for sending a revenue bill to President Reagan by the time Congress takes its Labor Day recess on Aug. 20. For that to occur, the conference would have to send a bill back to both chambers, which would then have to approve it. In an hour of impassioned debate on the floor, both the Republican and Democratic leadership of the House supported going directly to conference as the best means of adopting a tax bill that would reduce huge projected budget deficits and thus help to stimulate the economy.

International Guarded hope for peace in Lebanon was expressed by President Reagan. At his 12th Presidential news conference, Mr. Reagan carefully avoided placing blame for the conflict on Israel and said that in some instances the Palestine Liberation Organization had been ''the first to break the cease-fire.'' (Page A1, Column 6.) A Palestinian promise is sought in the negotiations on Lebanon. Prime Minister Menachem Begin said the American mediator, Philip C. Habib, promised him Tuesday to try to obtain ''an unequivocal commitment'' from the Palestine Liberation Organization to accept the principle of leaving Beirut. The Israeli leader said Mr. Habib, who returned to Beirut yesterday, believed that such a commitment was necessary for progress in the peace negotiations. (A1:5.)

The Federal Trade Commission voted unanimously today to seek an injunction that would block the acquisition of the Cities Service Company by the Gulf Oil Corporation. The F.T.C. said the huge merger could jeopardize competition in the sale of petroleum products, especially in the South and East. Officials at the commission said the agency would ask a Federal district court on Thursday for a preliminary injunction to suspend the $5.13 billion deal until the agency studied it more closely. If the commission succeeds in getting an injunction and then lodges an official complaint, setting in motion a full-scale examination of the deal, the process could take months or years -effectively killing the deal. But analysts said the two companies were likely to meet the F.T.C.'s antitrust objections by agreeing to sell offending operations.

''But it is regretful the way the people of Glen Cove look at our people, who by the way are human beings, too.