THE Administration, which thinks there is too much loose talk about a coming recession, is planning its own verbal counterattack. Government officials have been advised to take every opportunity in their speeches to play up the strength of the economy. To keep better tabs on business conditions, the new Government agency, ABEGS (Advisory Board on Economic Growth and Stability), is making special studies on such weather-vane industries as autos, appliances and apparel, so that any serious trouble can be spotted early.

COLUMBIA Broadcasting System, which has abandoned its own whirling-disk color-television system, will back a compatible system, developed by the industry's National Television Systems Committee, which is very similar to RCA's color.

THE Platte Pipe Line Co. will open a $62 million, 1,149-mile, 20-inch oil pipeline next week that will give Rocky Mountain oil producers a big new market for their crude. The line, which runs from eastern Wyoming to refineries near St. Louis, is capable of delivering 110,000 barrels of oil a day.

WEST Germany's Krupp-controlled Stahlbau (steel construction company) Rheinhausen is negotiating with the Turkish government to build a $65 million, 3/4-mile-long bridge across the Bosporus at Istanbul. Next to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, it would be the world's longest span.

TOYMAKERS, getting ready for their big season, expect sales to hit an alltime high of $900 million this year, and to top $1 billion in 1954--an average of $20 worth of toys for every U.S. child under 14.

REVERSING the trend to more expensive and complex fighter planes, Britain's small Folland Aircraft, Ltd. is building a light, simple jet fighter, the Gnat, that could be produced in swarms to fight off bombers. Weighing only 5,500 Ibs. (v. 16,500 for the Sabre jet), the Gnat will carry twin 30-mm. cannons, and climb to 40,000 feet in less than five minutes. Northrop, Lockheed and North American have also proposed building lightweight jets, and the Air Force will soon ask U.S. plane builders to submit plans.

NATURAL gas companies, which have spent $5.5 billion for expansion since 1947, will spend another $3.6 billion in the next four years.

EX-AMBASSADOR Lewis Douglas, asked by the President to survey economic conditions in the sterling area, has turned in such an optimistic report on trade progress there that the White House is temporarily keeping it under wraps, lest it provide ammunition for Congressmen opposed to extension of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act. A big point in the report: a warning that the U.S. must ease trade restrictions as U.S. aid declines.

FARM-TRACTOR sales have slumped so badly that International Harvester will slash production at its Rock Island, 111. plant in half this week, its biggest cutback since the war.

FRANCE'S Union Aeromaritime de Transport started the world's first tourist-fare jet flights. On its run between Paris and Brazzaville, the line's Comet jets carry 44 passengers (v. 36 on regular-fare flights) for 107,000 francs ($305) each--$75 less than Air France's deluxe Constellation fare, and the same price as Air France's tourist service.

HUGHES Aircraft has quietly bought more than 40,000 acres of Nevada desert land north of Las Vegas, will soon open a private testing range for the guided missiles and control equipment it is making.

NORTH American Aviation's Sabre jets in Korea won the first jet air war in history by a whopping score. Final count: 798 MIG kills, only 58 Sabre jets shot down.

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