“ Section 8 defines, with precision, the policy of the Act to raise the minimum wage to the 40 cents per hour limit 'as rapidly as is economically feasible without substantially curtailing employment' in each industry, and the standards of the administrative action applicable to the Administrator are those made applicable to the committee which it is provided 'shall recommend to the Administrator the highest minimum wage rates for the industry which it determines, having due regard to economic and competitive conditions, will not substantially curtail employment in the industry'. ”

“ The Administrator also considered the factors for determining whether classification should be made for wage differentials within the industry. After examining numerous studies of living costs made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor he concluded that the costs of living in the north exceeds that in the south by about 4.6% on the average, and that the differences in costs between cities in each region greatly exceed the difference between the two regions as a whole. ”

“ While only 31 per cent of the factories in the industry are in the south, 51.5 per cent of the value of the product is produced in southern mills and 55 per cent of the wage earners in the industry are employed by those mills. Petitioner argues that since the south had a mathematical preponderance in the Industry the Administrator was required by the statute to appoint a majority of each group, or at least a majority of the members of the committee from that region. ”

“ While fact finding may be and often is a step in the legislative process, the Constitution does not require that Congress should find for itself every fact upon which it bases legislation. 'It is a constitution we are expounding * * * intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently, to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs'. ”

“ He further found that since the average labor costs do not constitute over 36 per cent of production costs the minimum wage increase would increase production costs slightly over one-third of the percentages of wage increases just indicated, and that the increase in production costs would not result in such a rise in prices to ultimate consumers of the finished product as to decrease consumer demand. ”

“ He found that northern mills had an advantage with respect to transportations costs in shipping to the New England states, but southern mills had an advantage in shipping to the middle west and south, having a great population; that many northern finishing mills receive unfinished cloth from southern factories and thus bear the disadvantage in freight rates from the south to northern finishing mills and that on an average the south has a slight transportation advantage with respect to cotton coming to the mills there. ”

“ The argument of petitioner is not that the record contains no evidence supporting the findings but rather that this class of evidence must be ignored because not competent in a court of law. But it has long been settled that the technical rules for the exclusion of evidence applicable in jury trials do not apply to proceedings before federal administrative agencies in the absence of a statutory requirement that such rules are to be observed. ”

“ True, the appraisal of facts in the light of the declared policy and in conformity to prescribed legislative standards, and the inferences to be drawn by the administrative agency from the facts, so appraised, involve the exercise of judgment within the prescribed limits. ”

“ The Administrator found that curtailment of employment even in the mills paying the lowest wages would be dependent on total cost and the technological and general efficiency of each mill, and that low wages do not necessarily coincide with a low degree of efficiency. ”

“ As appears from his findings in support of the order, the Administrator, on September 13, 1938, appointed Industry Committee No. 1 for the textile industry, that industry being so defined by the order of appointment as to include the manufacture of cotton, silk, rayon and other products. Seven persons representing the public, seven representing employers in the industry, and seven representing employees were appointed to the Committee. ”

“ We have examined these contentions and, without further elaboration of the details of the evidence, we conclude that the Administrator's findings are supported by substantial evidence. Any different conclusion would require us to substitute our judgment of the weight of the evidence and the inferences to be drawn from it for that of the Administrator which the statute forbids. ”