gtk+-1.1 configure fails

[Eugene Kanter <eugene bgs com>]

redhat 5.1 system with all updates:

from gtk+-SNAP-980618:

% autogen.sh
I am going to run ./configure with no arguments - if you wish 
to pass any to it, please specify them on the ./autogen.sh command line.
aclocal: configure.in: 140: macro `AM_PATH_GLIB' not found in library
in am_init_automake
configure.in:124: warning: AC_TRY_RUN called without default to allow
cross compiling
configure.in:125: warning: AC_TRY_RUN called without default to allow
cross compiling
configure.in:333: warning: AC_TRY_RUN called without default to allow
cross compiling
configure.in:351: warning: AC_TRY_RUN called without default to allow
cross compiling
loading cache ./config.cache
./configure: syntax error near unexpected token
`AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE($PACKAGE,'
./configure: ./configure: line 580: `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE($PACKAGE, $VERSION,
no-define)'