diff --git a/mkfiles.pl b/mkfiles.pl
index bb767c16..563d83f6 100755
--- a/mkfiles.pl
+++ b/mkfiles.pl
@@ -1482,6 +1482,10 @@ if (defined $makefiles{'am'}) {
     "#\n# This file was created by `mkfiles.pl' from the `Recipe' file.\n".
     "# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE DIRECTLY; edit Recipe or mkfiles.pl instead.\n\n";
 
+    # 2014-02-22: as of automake-1.14 we begin to get complained at if
+    # we don't use this option
+    print "AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = subdir-objects\n\n";
+
     # Complete list of source and header files. Not used by the
     # auto-generated parts of this makefile, but Recipe might like to
     # have it available as a variable so that mandatory-rebuild things