what is the definition of second class mail?
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Answer:
United States. … established according to mail content: second-class consists of newspapers and magazines, third-class encompasses other printed matter and merchandise weighing less than one pound, and fourth-class ....
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registered mail, was introduced in 1855. The major milestones in this progress were postal money order service (1864); international money orders (1867); special delivery (1885); parcel post, with its accessory collect on delivery (COD) and insurances services (1913); and certified mail (1955), which provides proof of posting for items without intrinsic value. In 1911 a postal savings system was inaugurated, reaching a peak of more than 4,000,000 accounts in 1947. A decline to less than 1,000,000 depositors caused the service to be discontinued in 1966. Mail was formally divided into three classes in 1863, and a fourth was added in 1879. First-class, or letter, mail (called letter post in the United Kingdom) is the basis of the postal service monopoly and, as the class of mail most commonly used by the public, has generally had a simplified rate structure. The other classes were established according to mail content: second-class consists of newspapers and magazines, third-class encompasses other printed matter and merchandise weighing less than one pound, and fourth-class mail is either merchandise or printed matter that weighs one pound or more. The addition of these classes allowed the post office to adopt more complicated rate structures that would take into account factors affecting handling costs—such as the weight of the piece and the distance it would be conveyed. Second-class mail receives preferential rates because the dissemination of information through newspapers and other publications is considered to serve the public interest.
The post office has played a vital role as a pioneer and major user of all systems of transport as each was developed: the stagecoach, steamboat, canals, and railroads; the short-lived Pony Express; and airlines and motor vehicles. It also helped subsidize their development. A traveling post-office system, in which mail could be sorted in transit, was introduced experimentally in 1862, and it made railway mail service the dominant form of mail conveyance well into the 20th century. The gradual reduction of passenger train services during the 1930s led to the birth of a highway post-office service in 1941. Both of these services declined rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s. Railway post-office mileage was reduced from 96,400,000 in 1965 to 10,100,000 in 1969, and the number of highway post offices in operation during that period fell from 163 to none. Conversely, annual ton-miles of airmail flown grew from 188,103,000 in 1965 to more than 1,000,000,000 by the 1980s, indicating the significant trend toward air transportation of regular mail without surcharge.