diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 819795c5d086ede58bd17c7b39bdc96ab6c815d2..de7e837f82ca6f0ffce73e674045d11cfeb77553 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 
 # "foreign" means we don't follow GNU package layout standards
 # 1.7 means we require automake vesion 1.7
-AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign 1.7
+AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign 1.7 subdir-objects
 
 noinst_LIBRARIES=
 EXTRA_DIST=