The paper is cut by machinery.
The preposition on which a noun depends is often omitted when not needed for clearness.
The foreman gave (to) the men a holiday.
He came (on) Sunday.
Near (to) the press.
He was ten minutes late (late by ten minutes).
He is 18 years old (old by or to the extent of 18 years).
The nominative and objective cases of nouns do not differ in form. They are distinguished by their positions in the sentence and their relations to other words.
When one noun owns another the one owning is in the possessive case.
The man's paper is cut.
The possessive case is shown by the form of the noun. It is formed by adding s preceded by an apostrophe to the nominative case, thus,
John's hat.
There is a considerable difference of usage regarding the formation of the possessives of nouns ending in s in the singular. The general rule is to proceed as in other nouns by adding the apostrophe and the other s as James's hat. DeVinne advises following the pronunciation. Where the second s is not pronounced, as often happens to avoid the prolonged hissing sound of another s, he recommends omitting it in print.
Moses' hat, for Moses's hat.
For conscience' sake.